Follow-up and prognosis of cervical cancer

After surgical treatment of cervical cancer, a considerable number of patients will experience recurrence or cancer cell metastasis, so active postoperative follow-up and understanding of the prognosis are helpful to the patient's physical and mental health.

Follow-up

About 35% of patients with invasive cervical cancer may have recurrence or persistence after treatment. It is very common for patients to die from recurrent or persistent cervical cancer in the first year after initial treatment, with about 50% dying in the first year, 25% dying in the second year, and 15% dying in the third year. Therefore, patients also need to adopt the following monitoring plan after treatment: asymptomatic patients should be reexamined once every 3 months in the first year, once every 4 months in the second year, and once every 6 months in the third to fifth years; patients with symptoms should be examined and evaluated immediately when symptoms appear.

Symptoms and signs of malignant lesions after recurrence include: palpable masses in the pelvis or abdomen, positive cytology examination, cervical or vaginal ulcers, pain in the back, pelvis, lower limbs or groin, edema in one of the patient's lower limbs, abnormal vaginal bleeding or discharge, ascites, supraclavicular lymphadenopathy, unexplained weight loss, progressive urethral obstruction and cough.

Prognosis

The main prognostic factors affecting the survival rate of cervical cancer patients are: disease stage, tumor volume, lymph node status, depth of cervical stromal invasion, lymphovascular invasion, and pathological type and grade. Lymph node status is the most important prognostic factor after disease stage.

The International Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics has summarized the survival rates of patients at different stages based on the treatment results of gynecological cancer from more than 100 research institutions around the world. The results show that the milder the disease before treatment, the higher the patient's survival rate. Taking the 5-year survival rate as an example, the highest is 95.1% and the lowest is only 9.4%.