Dr. Ferguson on Treatment Options for Early-Stage Cervical Cancer

Sarah Ferguson, MD, FRCSC, associate professor of gynecologic oncology, University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, discusses treatment options for patients with early-stage cervical cancer.

For this patient population, treatment approaches include external beam radiation with intracavitary brachytherapy. Early-stage patients are not typically treated with single-agent chemotherapy, but it can be added to definitive radiation treatment. With small, early-stage tumors such as stage IbI cancer, surgery is often offered, though radiation can also be part of the discussion with patients, Ferguson says.

In terms of surgery, physicians are now able to offer a minimally invasive radical hysterectomy, but unanswered questions remain with this modality. For example, in a study presented by Ferguson at the 2019 SGO Annual Meeting, there was no clear difference in microscopic tumor samples between patients with early-stage cervical cancer who underwent a minimally invasive surgery versus a traditional open procedure.