Abdominal radical trachelectomy versus chemotherapy followed by vaginal radical trachelectomy in stage 1B2 (FIGO 2018) cervical cancer. A systematic review on fertility and recurrence rates.

INTRODUCTION: There is currently no standard of care for women with cervical cancer stage IB2 (FIGO 2018, ≥2 cm and <4 cm in greatest dimension) who wish to preserve their fertility. Generally, two approaches are offered. Option 1: neoadjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy (NACT) to reduce the tumor size to ≤ 2 cm, followed by Vaginal Radical Trachelectomy (VRT) with Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection (PLND) either before chemotherapy or at the time of VRT. Option 2: Abdominal Radical Trachelectomy (ART) with PLND. OBJECTIVE: To compare rates of fertility, pregnancy, life births as well as recurrence for women with cervical cancer stage IB2 treated with either NACT followed by VRT, or ART. METHODS: A systematic review was performed using the PubMed database. Articles reporting the search term 'trachelectomy' as text word or as Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) were identified. RESULTS: Ten studies were identified with a total of 338 patients. After NACT followed by VRT 39% of the women tried to conceive, 70% of these women got pregnant, of which 63% resulted in a life birth. The overall recurrence and death rate were 10% and 2.9% respectively. After ART 40% of the women tried to conceive, 21% of these women got pregnant, which resulted in a life birth rate of 42%. Recurrence and death rate after ART were 6.9%, and 3.4% respectively. CONCLUSION: Women with cervical cancer stage IB2 and a wish to preserve fertility treated with NACT followed by VRT have a significantly higher chance of pregnancy than women treated with ART, with comparative oncological results.