Advances in surgical management of cervical cancer

Cervical cancer (CC) remains an important health problem representing the second most frequent malignancy in women, with 470 000 new cases/year and 280 000 deaths, 80% of which occur in developing countries. In the last few years, new theoretical developments and advances in technology resulted in novel surgical approaches aimed at improving the therapeutic efficacy and/or reducing treatment related side effects. In particular, the authors focused their attention on the most relevant novelties related to the laparoscopic approach to CC treatment, and on the issue of modulation of surgical radicality. Moreover, the possible perspectives of sentinel lymph node concept and robotic surgery, as well as clinical issues related to conservative procedures including "nerve sparing" and "fertility sparing" strategies, have been evaluated.