Diagnosis and Treatment of Cervical Cancer

According to the American Cancer Society, over 10,000 women are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer each year in the United States. Cervical cancer is typically detected when doctors do a biopsy after a suspicious pap smear or pelvic exam. Although cervical cancer most commonly occurs in women between age 35 and 55, over 20% of women diagnosed with cervical cancer are over age 65.

Stanford Expertise

Stanford offers the most advanced multimodal regimens available:

• Early-stage smaller cancers of the cervix are treated by radical hysterectomy or radiation therapy, based on each patient's health profile.
  
  
• For early stage larger cancers of the cervix, we are comparing the relative efficacy of radiation therapy used alone versus radiation followed by surgery. Specific dose levels of radiation are meticulously controlled to provide optimal individualized therapy.
  
  
• For patients with locally advanced disease, the focus is on aggressive combined modality treatment involving the use of chemotherapy and radiation sensitizers. These agents potentially augment the efficacy of radiation treatment, mitigate toxic side effects, and increase survival beyond that offered by radiation alone.

Patients with recurrent disease, or those who have not responded to initial therapy, may be candidates for participation in clinical trials of new chemotherapeutic agents or may undergo exenteration surgery, which in recent years has offered significant cure rates due to advances in surgical and supportive techniques.

Additionally, intra-operative radiation therapy (IORT) during surgery can potentially boost cure rates even higher.