Treatment
Fertility: A major factor is that treatments for cervical cancer often make it impossible to become pregnant in the future. Infertility is a distressing side effect of the normal treatment programme. However with younger women and early cervical cancer, doctors may be able to undertake to remove your cervix and surrounding lymphatic tissue whilst sparing your womb. They should be able to avoid the use of ovary-damaging radiotherapy, or fertility-damaging drugs. Please discuss this at length with your oncologist.
Surgery: Where the cancer has hardly spread and is in its very early stages laser treatment may be used, or electrical loop (LEEP Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure) or cone surgery see the diagnosis section above.
Cryosurgery is another option where the cells are simply frozen and removed.
However in more advanced cases surgery can be major including a hysterectomy to remove the womb, and even the fallopian tubes and ovaries as well. Lymph nodes may also be removed at the same time. Despite being a major operation, it seems to be successful in most cases.
Certain US hospitals like MD Anderson in Texas are increasingly using Minimally Invasive Surgery to try to avoid infertility and long stays in hospital.
Radiotherapy may be used to kill off any remaining cancer cells, but there is a realistic fear of long-term damage from the beam on adjacent organs especially the bladder, bowel or ovaries. Readers might like to read 20 things you should know about Radiotherapy LINK. Where the ovaries receive radiation there is a real chance that you will become infertile.
Radiotherapy may also be used to shrink the tumour prior to surgery.
Radiotherapy is commonly internal radiotherapy or brachytherapy, although more normal external radiotherapy is also used. In internal radiotherapy an applicator (a metal rod with radioactivity) is inserted much as a tampon would be.
The text books say that this method gives a high dose of radiotherapy to the local cancer cells, but negligible amounts to the organs further away. However, those same books and leaflets talk about risks to visitors and how children are not even allowed in the same room on occasion!
Ask. And obtain the full details to the point where you are happy that you fully understand the benefits and risks.
Hormone treatment: In certain instances where post-surgery there is a fear of an early menopause for younger women, HRT may be prescribed. You should read our numerous articles about this drug and its cancer risks under main articles in our Breast Cancer section and HRT increases Cancer Risk confirmed yet again.
Chemotherapy may be used where there is spread. The most common drugs are cisplatin, mitomycin and bleomycin. For information on your Cancer Drugs and chemotherapy click here. Cisplatin seems to be the favoured drug either on its own or in combination with others.
There have been a number of clinical trials using cisplatin with cervical cancer. The NCI in the USA produced an overview concerning women who received either cisplatin or the combination of cisplatin, 5-flurouracil, and hydroxyurea during radiotherapy:
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At 30 months of follow-up, 63 percent of women given cisplatin and 62 percent given the combination were alive without progression of disease
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At five years of follow-up, 58 percent of women given cisplatin and 57 percent given the combination were alive without progression of disease,
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At 10 years of follow-up, 46 percent of women given cisplatin and 43 percent given the combination were alive without progression of disease.
There has been some evidence of ear damage/deafness in patients using cisplatin. It seems linked with genetic factors (icon issue 2; 17. 2007 ).
Hyperthermia/Ultrasound: In Germany a revolution is taking place. Peter Wurst (Charite Universitatsmedizin, Berlin) has been pioneering the use of hyperthermia and ultrasound. Stage III clinical trials have still to take place but results so far are exceptional. (Int. J. Radiat.Onc.Biol Phys 2006; 66: 1159-67). All the women in the trials to date had late stage cervical cancer but the tumours could not be removed. Hyperthermia and ultrasound (taking temperatures to 41 degrees in the tumour for 60 minutes, then allowed surgery on 14 patients. Subsequently 3 year survival was 93 per cent. Even the group who did not want surgery thereafter had a 79 per cent 3 year survival. Early days but at long last the UK is waking up to hyperthermia and ultrasound, particularly for Kidney and prostate cancers. You can find out more by clicking this link.
Other Ways forward
You might decide that drugs and chemotherapy are not for you. You might want to look into Diet therapies on this site you will find all the details about the famous Gerson Therapy, or Dr Gonzalez in New York, who has clinical trials to support his diet and supplement therapy.
You might simply want to look at diet to support your orthodox treatments we have that too. As we mentioned above our book,The Tree of life the anti-cancer Diet gives you lots of information, even a shopping trolley of foods to buy! We even have articles on this web site covering which herbs are known to make a difference.
You might want to look for the best supplements to take not merely the everyday antioxidants but natural compounds supported in research as having anti-cancer activity like vitamin D, fish oils, total vitamin E, curcumin and probiotics.
If you are looking for supplements click on the tab at the top of the page and go to the Natural Selection shop where they have selected the best of the best and you can buy with confidence.
You may want to look at how daily light exercise can help (some research says it cuts mortality by up to 50 per cent). Then there are clinical trials on meditation. You can access our kiddies guide to everything from massage to yoga.
Then there are energy therapies like acupuncture. People with cancer always have an imbalance in their body energy. It is relatively easy to fix and get it working for you again.
Finally you might want to try Hands on Healing, or even pay a visit to John of God. Hes free you just have to get to Brazil. He doesnt cure people, God does. We do know people who went who were very impressed.