Cervical Cancer Surgery
Cancer is a terrible word that scares us all. Luckily, though, it is not nearly as fatal of a disease as we might be inclined to think and, if caught in time, the chances of survival are getting higher and higher. That does in no way mean that cancer surgery is an easy experience - but luckily doctors are becoming better at handling it.
Cervical Cancer
Technically speaking, cervical cancer refers to a tumour growing in the cervix, which is located on the lower side of the uterus. Most of the time, cervical cancer is caused by the infection HPV - human papillomavirus. The good news is that there is a vaccine that prevents HPV from developing - which means that cervical cancer has become a preventable disease. The infection can also be prevented through the use of condoms, while smoking and certain nutrition factors can increase the likelihood of the diseases development. However, cervical cancer is still the fifth most deadly cancer in women - the problem has not yet been completely solved.
Cancer surgery is the most frequent course of treatment in the early stages of cervical cancer. For more advanced stages, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are also used. Most of the time the treatment needs to be adapted based on the patient, the location of the tumour and its development. The type of cancer surgery that applies also varies, based on the seriousness of the condition.
Cervical Cancer Surgery Options
In the very early stages of cervical cancer, performing the surgery will most likely not affect a woman's ability to have children. Here are two procedures that can be carried out in these stages:
- LEEP - Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure or a Cone Biopsy are surgeries that remove a wedge of the tissue in the cervix containing the cancer.
- A more invasive cancer surgery that can be performed is the radical trachelectomy or laparoscopy for the pelvic lymph node dissection - this procedure removes the area lymph nodes and cervix, while the uterus is not removed. This is not a commonly used procedure.
After a certain development stage for cervical cancer, the possibility of having children after the procedure becomes more and more remote due to the increase in the amount of tissue that is being removed. Most often in later stages, doctors perform a hysterectomy which, depending on the seriousness of the condition, can be done with or without ovary removal. There's also the possibility of a modified radical hysterectomy - which includes a pelvic lymph node dissection. This includes the removal of the uterus, a part of the vagina, the fallopian tubes and the ovaries. It is a procedure that is carried out in the case of a wider spread of the cancer, reducing the risk of its reoccurrence.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy may be applied to remove any remaining cancer cells after the cancer surgery is performed. Occasionally the treatments can also be carried out before the actual surgery - to maintain the tumour under control.