Fertility-sparing surgery and fertility preservation in cervical cancer:
the desire for parenthood, reproductive and obstetric outcomes.
Abstract
Objective to evaluate the desire for parenthood and
reproductive outcomes following fertility-sparing treatment for invasive
cervical cancer including Vaginal Radical Trachelectomy (VRT), Radical
Hysterectomy (RH) and chemoradiotherapy. Design Retrospective
cohort study Setting Tertiary referral center in the
Netherlands Population patients <45 years with
invasive cervical cancer desiring to maintain reproductive potential.
Methods Clinicopathologic and reproductive outcomes were
retrieved from medical files and postal questionnaires for patients
treated between 2009 – 2020. Main outcome measures Survival,
recurrences, fertility and pregnancy outcomes Results 75
patients were identified of whom 34 underwent VRT, 9 RH and 32 had
(chemo)radiotherapy. 26 patients started fertility preservation (FP)
procedures of whom 23 (88.5%) successfully preserved fertility. After a
median follow-up of 49 months, 5 patients developed recurrent disease
and died. Reproductive outcomes were available for 58 patients of whom
89.6% maintained their desire for parenthood. Following VRT, 15
patients conceived 21 pregnancies which resulted in 15 live-births,
yielding a pregnancy rate of 61.9% and live-birth rate of 75.0%.
Following RH or (chemo)radiotherapy, 3 surrogate pregnancies were
established (21.4%) using frozen-thawed oocytes (n=2) and ovarian
tissue fragments (n=1) with good neonatal outcomes. Conclusions
Many cervical cancer patients maintain the desire to become parents
after cancer treatment. Vaginal Radical Trachelectomy and Fertility
Preservation enable young women with invasive cervical cancer to become
a parent after cancer treatment. Structural and timely fertility
counseling is of the essence when attempting fertility-sparing treatment
and should be available to all. Keywords cervical cancer /
oncofertility / trachelectomy / fertility preservation / surrogacy