invasive cancer of the cervix

When thinking about your treatment, your doctors will take into account:

• how big your cancer is
• whether it has spread, and if so, where to
• your age and general state of health
• your wishes.

Your doctors will tell you about the risks, benefits and side effects of the treatments being offered, and how they may affect your life afterwards.

You will then need to agree to the treatment before it can start. This is called giving your consent. Don't be afraid to ask questions if there is anything you don't understand.

The treatments you may be offered are:

Surgery
The type of surgery depends on a number of factors, which your doctor will discuss with you at the clinic. The different types of surgery are:

Cone biopsy
If you have very early cancer of the cervix, a cone biopsy may be the only treatment needed. The doctor removes a cone-shaped area of tissue where the cancer is. You will need a general anaesthetic for this, and you may have to stay in hospital overnight.

Radical hysterectomy
The surgeon takes out the uterus (womb), the fallopian tubes, the top of the vagina and the tissue alongside the cervix. S/he will also take out some of the lymph nodes in the pelvis, to see if the cancer has spread. You will have no more periods, but you will not develop symptoms of the menopause because your ovaries will be left behind.

Coelio schauta
In some treatment centres the radical hysterectomy may be carried out vaginally.

Radical trachelectomy
A few women may be able to have a radical operation that leaves the uterus behind. This surgery may be available if you want to have children in future, but it is suitable only in some cases and is not carried out very often.

Some women also have radiotherapy after their surgery (see below).

Choice of removal of the ovaries
Whether your ovaries are removed will depend on your age and your wishes. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may be offered to help treat menopausal symptoms.

Radiotherapy instead of surgery

For some women with cervical cancer, surgery is not a suitable treatment - so radiotherapy may be offered instead.

Radiotherapy uses radiation to kill cancer cells. It may be given from outside or inside the body.

When given from outside the body it is called external beam radiotherapy, and a machine directs high energy x-rays at the cancer. For cancer of the cervix, treatment is given every working day for a few weeks.

Another way of giving radiotherapy is from the inside of the body. There are different ways of doing this - for example a Selectron or a Microselectron machine may be used to give you radiotherapy via the vagina. Your doctor will tell you more about this.

If you have radiotherapy instead of surgery, you are likely to have both external and internal radiotherapy.

Radiotherapy stops the ovaries from working, and your menopause will start. Some women then have hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to counter some of the effects of the menopause, such as hot flushes.

Radiotherapy after surgery

If you are going to have a hysterectomy, you may also have radiotherapy afterwards. It is normally given from outside the body, every working day for a few weeks.

You may also have radiotherapy if the cancer has spread to some of the lymph nodes in your pelvis, or if you have had a simple hysterectomy and the surgeon has unexpectedly found cancer.

For more information on the possible side effects of radiotherapy for cancer of the cervix, click here.

Chemotherapy
You may be offered chemotherapy at the same time as radiotherapy. Studies show that giving chemotherapy and radiotherapy together can improve the chance of survival for some patients.

Chemotherapy uses special drugs to kill cancer cells.

For more information about treatments, go to our cancer treatments section.