Fertility-Sparing Cervical Cancer: Procedures and Outcomes

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide and is most frequently diagnosed in women who are between the ages of 35 and 44, with the incidence rates increasing nearly 2% each year in women ages 30–44. Standard surgical management of early-stage cervical cancer routinely involves hysterectomy. However, the prevalence of cervical cancer in young patients and the social shift of women electing to delay childbearing has created a reproductive dilemma. With the arrival of the radical vaginal trachelectomy in the late 1980s, patients with early-stage cervical cancer now had an option for fertility preservation. Over time, fertility-sparing surgeries for cervical cancer patients have become increasingly conservative while maintaining comparable oncologic outcomes. This surgical review examines the variety of fertility-sparing procedures available for early-stage cervical cancer in the context of their oncologic and reproductive outcomes.