Baby planning time - Baby hope for cancer victims

A surgical breakthrough could prevent hundreds of women with cervical cancer being left infertile. Those in the early stages of the disease currently face a hysterectomy to remove the entire womb and cervix.

But a new study has found an operation to remove just the cervix prevented the disease spreading while still allowing women to become pregnant. More than half of the 1,500 women in Britain who develop the early stages of cervical cancer each year are under 40 and still young enough to have babies.

So researchers at Bart's Hospital in London developed the new four hour procedure which, so far, has been used on 100 women. In a survey of 30 of the patients, 60 per cent of those who attempted to conceive were able to become pregnant, leading to the birth of nine babies. Fewer than a quarter had fertility problems after the operation. The cancer returned in only two cases.

Consultant gynaecological oncologist Prof John Shepherd has carried out 52 of the trachelectomy operations since 1994. 'There is potential for returning fertility by carrying out a local surgical procedure., conserving the womb and with it, the potential of child-bearing,' he said.

'I believe it is now an appropriate time to re-evaluate the need to remove the whole womb at surgery for early cervical cancers.'

The operation is suitable for only women in the early stages of the disease who have not had children. After six months, the woman is able to try for a child, which would have to be born by Caesarean section.

About 3,000 women a year develop cervical cancer in the UK. In 1999, it claimed 1,100 lives.

See also Freezing ovaries could save fertility

Source: Metro, Monday, July 23, 2001