Safety evaluation of abdominal trachelectomy in patients with cervical tumors ≥2 cm: a single-institution, retrospective analysis

OBJECTIVE: For oncologic safety, vaginal radical trachelectomy is generally performed only in patients with cervical cancers smaller than 2 cm. However, because inclusion criteria for abdominal trachelectomy are controversial, we evaluated the safety of abdominal trachelectomy for cervical cancers >/=2 cm. METHODS: We began performing abdominal trachelectomies at our institution in 2005, primarily for squamous cell carcinoma /=2 cm, trachelectomy was successful in 62, 2 of whom developed recurrence and 1 of whom died of her disease. The overall relapse rate after trachelectomy was 1.6% (0.8% in /=2 cm group), and the mortality rate was 0.5% (0% in /=2 cm group). Recurrence-free survival (p=0.303) and overall survival (p=0.193) did not differ significantly between the /=2 cm groups. CONCLUSIONS: Abdominal trachelectomy with intraoperative frozen sections of sentinel lymph nodes and cervical margins is oncologically safe, even in patients with tumors >/=2 cm.