The Princess Margaret gynecologic oncology group offers variety of surgical options for patients with cervical cancer. We are one of few Canadian centers that offer fertility preserving radical trachelectomy surgery for patients with early stage cervical cancer. Our team has performed this procedure on young women with cervical carcinoma, and pediatric patients with a rare subtype of malignancy known as Rhabdomyosarcoma. We have performed this surgery on a patient as young as 2-years old, who is the youngest patient reported in the literature to have undergone a trachelectomy. Click here to see surgical video of pediatric radical trachelectomy.

In addition, we offer ovarian surgical transposition for patients with cervical carcinoma who benefit from pelvic radio therapy with the goal of preserving ovarian function. Please see our surgical approach to laparoscopic bilateral ovarian transposition in this video.

Read the following article from Dr. Taymaa May in the Sprott department of surgery regarding fertility preservation for patients with cervical malignancies: 

“For women with cervical cancer, treatment used to involve the complete removal of the cervix and uterus, leaving them cancer-free but without the ability to have children, says Dr. Taymaa May. But increasingly, surgeons like Dr. May are using a revolutionary technique called a radical trachelectomy to treat cervical cancer, leaving the cervix, the upper part of the vagina and supporting tissues intact. The six-hour, computer-assisted surgery, using the Da Vinci robot, allows for minimally invasive laparoscopic incisions, as well as tissue and lymph node removal. “The patients have smaller incisions in their abdomen, less pain and they can go home the same day,” says Dr. May. In the past they would have been hospitalized for four or five days. But the biggest advantage of radical trachelectomy is that it preserves fertility. “(Women) have the option of carrying a pregnancy at a later time,” explains May, who’s one of fewer than 10 surgeons in Canada to have performed this surgery. She has also expanded the procedure to treat another rare cancer that affects women and girls under age 18: rhabdomyosarcoma of the cervix, an aggressive cancer that forms in muscle tissue”.
Sprott Department of Surgery, UHN