Surgical and Oncologic Outcomes of Radical Abdominal Trachelectomy Versus Hysterectomy for Stage IA2-IB1 Cervical Cancer.

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To compare the surgical and oncologic outcomes between abdominal radical trachelectomy (ART) and radical hysterectomy (RH) for stage IA2-IB1 cervical cancer.

DESIGN

A retrospective cohort study (Canadian Task Force classification II-2).

SETTING

Shandong Cancer Hospital, Shandong, China.

PATIENTS

Three hundred twenty-nine patients with IA2-IB1 cervical cancer.

INTERVENTIONS

All patients underwent ART or RH.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

All patients were divided into ART (n = 143) and RH (n = 186) groups according to the surgical approach. Additionally, oncologic and fertility outcomes were compared for different tumor pathologies and sizes in ART patients. The ART group had similar case characteristics as the RH group, except that the ART group had a longer surgical time. During a similar follow-up period, there were 4 (2.9%) recurrences and 3 (2.2%) patients who died from recurrence in the ART group compared with 8 (4.6%) recurrences and 4 (2.3%) patients who died from recurrence in the RH group (p = .444 and p = .999, respectively). In the ART group, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) patients had a 5-year overall survival and pregnancy rate similar to those of non-SCC patients (98.1% vs 96.8%, p = .999; 33.3% vs 26.7%, p = .873), and patients with tumors ≤2 cm and 2 to 4 cm experienced a similar 5-year overall survival rate (97.0% vs 98.6%, p = .999), except patients with tumors ≤2 cm had a higher pregnancy rate (45.2% vs 17.2%, p = .020).

CONCLUSION

ART seems to have similar surgical and oncologic outcomes to RH, except ART has a longer surgical time. Both non-SCC patients and stage IA2-IB1 patients with 2- to 4-cm tumors can undergo ART safely. Patients with tumors ≤2 cm have a higher pregnancy rate than patients with 2- to 4-cm tumors.