Increasing global accessibility to high-level treatments for cervical cancers.

Human papillomaviruses (HPV)-related gynecological cancers are a major health care issue, and a leading cause of cancer death in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). In 2020, the World Health Organization launched a program aimed at cervical cancer elimination, by screening and vaccination strategies. Offering the best possible care to women diagnosed with invasive cancer is a complementary objective. Treatment of cervical cancer as per modern standards is complex and multimodal, mainly relying on surgery, external-beam radiotherapy (+/-chemotherapy) and brachytherapy. In parallel with the pivotal role of multidisciplinary discussion, international societies provide guidance to define the most effective and least toxic anti-cancer strategy, homogenize treatment protocols and provide benchmark quality indicators as a basis for accreditation processes. The challenge is to offer the appropriate diagnostic workup and treatment upfront and to avoid non- evidence-based treatment that consumes resources, impairs quality of life (QoL), and compromises oncological outcome. Various strategies may be applied for improving treatment quality: development of surgical mentorship, companion-training programs and international cooperation. The lack of radiotherapy/brachytherapy facilities is a major concern in LMIC. Reinforcing international support in terms of education, training, research and development and technical cooperation with national projects is required to increase access to minimum requirements but also introduce modern techniques, upgrade radiotherapy/brachytherapy services, and expand access to modern systemic treatments. In countries with robust economies, compliance to standards should also be increased. Integrative cancer care and multidisciplinary approaches are needed to tackle the dual challenge of increasing cure rates while minimizing QoL impairment. Appropriate dimensioning of the resources to avoid harmful treatment delays and access to expert referral centers is also a priority.

[Robotic gynecologic surgery: state of the art. Review of the literature]. / Chirurgie robotique en gynécologie: état des connaissances. Revue de la littérature.

Tele-operating robots, that have been developing for 10 years, are a revolution in the field of minimally invasive gynaecology. Indeed, by restoring three-dimensional view and the surgeon's hand freedom, the robot diminishes the technical difficulties of laparoscopy. The robot brings the surgeon back to open-air movements while preserving the minimally invasive aspect of the procedure and should, therefore, allow an easier transition for laparotomic surgeons to minimally invasive techniques. However, some inconvenients remain: the robot's size, its time-consuming installation, the lack of force feedback and the cost of robotic surgery. To this day, the robot was used in gynaecology for tubal reversal, myomectomies, hysterectomies, promontofixations and the treatment of gynaecological cancers, but the benefits compared to laparoscopic techniques have not yet been demonstrated and will require large scale prospective studies. These benefits will also have to be weighed up to the cost and organizational constraints.

Staging of gynaecological malignancies by natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (N.O.T.E.S.).

Gynaecological malignancies are most often diagnosed and staged by surgery. With the expanding evidence of efficacy and benefit of neoadjuvant treatments, such tumor confirmation and assessment should be ideally done with the least associated morbidity. Thus sentinel node biopsy has already been proposed for selected indications so that the morbidity associated with formal lymphadenectomy could be avoided in those patients without nodal metastases. The era of natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (N.O.T.E.S.) heralds an operative methodology of 'least invasiveness' that could be useful in gynaecological cancer. In this article, we present an overview of the staging of gynaecological malignancies with a focus on the potential applications and benefits that N.O.T.E.S. may provide in this field. In particular, we believe that performing sentinel lymph node dissection with N.O.T.E.S. could associate the low morbidity rate of the former technique with the minimal invasiveness of the latter one and therefore consolidate the potential of this technique.