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Below, week by week, is what OnCo's record of Early cervical cancer and fertility-sparing surgery says about the first two months: the order is typical, the timing is yours to ask about. Early cervical cancer is confined to the cervix and is usually cured by surgery. Recent trials have shown that open surgery is safer than keyhole surgery for radical hysterectomy, that a simple hysterectomy is enough for the smallest tumours, and that young women with small tumours can keep their uterus with a trachelectomy. Sections appear only where the record has something to say. Orientation, not medical advice.
Staging tests establish exactly what and where the cancer is. Everything else follows from the answers.
Ask which of these were tested and what the results were; see the report reader for what each value means.
These specialties appear in the standard of care for this cancer. In most centres they meet weekly as a tumour board to agree each plan; you can ask when yours was discussed and what was decided.
A second opinion from a centre that treats many similar cases is normal, not rude; the standard of care tells you what to compare it against.
Each row is a setting from the standard of care, in the order it usually arises. Not all will apply to you; your stage and biomarkers decide which do. The guideline grade, where recorded, says how strong the evidence is.
HPV vaccination and HPV-based screening with colposcopy for positives.
Simple hysterectomy with node assessment (SHAPE) or open radical hysterectomy; sentinel node biopsy where a trial or protocol supports it.
Pelvic radiotherapy for intermediate-risk features; cisplatin chemoradiation for positive nodes, margins or parametria.
Cone biopsy with clear margins or simple hysterectomy; no node assessment needed.
Open radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy; minimally invasive radical hysterectomy avoided after LACC.
Cone or simple trachelectomy for IA disease; radical trachelectomy with node assessment for IB1 tumours up to 2 cm.
Generated from this cancer's standard of care, biomarkers and open problems. Take the group that matches where you are. To tick, add your own and print, open the one-page appointment sheet.
Trials open now for this cancer in OnCo, largest phase first. Joining a trial is a decision like any other: ask what the comparison arm is, whether a placebo is used, and what happens if you leave. The cancer page searches ClinicalTrials.gov live for more.
Much of what helps in the first weeks is free if you know to ask: testing, helplines, rides and lodging, second opinions, trial travel.
Every term links to the glossary.