Surgical treatment of cervical cancer. State of the art

The surgical treatment of cervical cancer is dependent on the stage and should follow complex but accurately defined algorithms and also consider the general condition of the patient, tumor type, tumor biology (and additional risk factors) as well as personal and family planning of patients. Selective literature and guideline search in PubMed. At present only surgical staging can provide exact information regarding potential tumor spread throughout the abdominal cavity, detection or exclusion of lymph node involvement and involvement of neighboring organs. Patients with early cervical cancer should if possible always undergo minimally invasive surgical procedures because in experienced hands the surgical and oncological outcomes of minimally invasive surgery are at least equal to those of laparotomy and with a clearly lower perioperative and postoperative morbidity. The sentinel lymphadenectomy concept provides the possibility of an adequate staging by omission of radical lymphadenectomy and leads to a significant reduction of associated complications. The complex surgical interventions for cervical cancer should not be carried out sporadically but only in specialized centers, which are equipped with a complete, interdisciplinary infrastructure.