Has anyone ever had surgical staging done for their cervical cancer? If so why? And what’s it for?
my surgeon/ gynecologist has my clinical staging but said I may need surgical staging.
didn’t really explain it.
Hi Megs23
As I said in my answer in your last post, the best person to ask is the doctor who has suggested it might happen. I don’t recall anyone in the group in the last few years mentioning it at diagnosis. Some ladies have had a hysterectomy for what was presumed to be a stage one cancer, but when analysis is done in the lab on what was removed, it turned out to be stage 3C for example, which led to chemorads. This is not common in the group posts, but I have seen it happen. Normally, clinical staging is the determining factor for treatment, but occasionally, as with going from stage 1 to 3 after a hysterectomy, the clinical staging has missed another factor like lymphnodes which would change the staging.
It does suggest that something might be removed and analysed to fully confirm the thoughts on the clinical staging. It could be further samples from the tumour, it could be to check lymphnodes, but the only person who can give you a clear answer would be your gynaecologist/surgeon. It seems like they want to be absolutely certain they know what they are dealing with, but everyone’s situation is individual to them.
Can you give your gynaecologist or specialist nurse a call to get some clarification?
Sarah xx
Hi Megs23
I had that. My initial staging was done using biopsy from colposcopy followed by PET CT scan and MRI. Based on this my consultant staged me at least 1a2 so i was given a hysterectomy. I was told the official staging would be given after the results of my surgery biopsies. So this is what they referred to as surgical staging. I had lymphovascular invasion present on from my colposcopy biopsy so i think if they dont have clear margins with the lymphovascular invasion, my staging will be upped and will need additional treatment. Im actually going in tomorrow to get my results.
Hope this helps x
Did you just get a letter or see it on an app? I hope you’ll have a face to face appointment to discuss everything.
It’s true that poorly differentiated cells are the most abnormal cancer cells, but the treatment should still be the same. I also had adenocarcinoma.
Sarah xx
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