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Early stages of cervical cancer can be treated with surgery and even lead to a cure. Type of surgery depends on the size of the cancer, stage, and the desire to become pregnant in the future. Loop or cold knife cone excision can be utilized both for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in the early stages of cervical cancer. This involves the removal of a small part of the cervix that is affected by the cancer. This can be a technique that can be utilized in patients who desire future pregnancy. Simple hysterectomy, that is the removal of the uterus with cervix, sparing the surrounding tissue and lymph nodes, can also be used in early stage cervical cancer. Trachelectomy or radical trachelectomy is another surgical advancement. And this involves just removing the cervix, the lower portion of the uterus that is involved with the cancer. Again, this is a technique that is offered only to patients who are carefully chosen and who desire future fertility. They have to meet a certain disease criteria as well. Radical hysterectomy with sentinel pelvic lymph node dissection, which means removal of the uterus, the surrounding tissue called parametria, the small portion of the upper vagina, and some lymph nodes from the pelvis. Sentinel lymph nodes are an advancement as well in the gynecologic surgery world, where a dye is injected in the cervix and it traces to the first lymph nodes where the cancer would go to if it were to spread.
