How Is Cervical Cancer Treated?

 

Your stage of cervical cancer and your overall health will determine the method your physician recommends for treating your illness. The primary ways of attacking cervical cancer are surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy (drugs).

Your physician will work with you to choose the best treatment for your cervical cancer based on:

  • Your age, overall health, and medical history
  • Extent of the disease
  • Grade and stage of the cancer
  • Your tolerance of specific medicines, procedures, or therapies
  • Expectations for the course of the disease
  • Your opinion or preference

All treatments have benefits and risks. You and your doctor should carefully balance the potential benefits of any cancer treatment with its potential risks.

After the cervical cancer is diagnosed and staged, your physician will recommend a treatment plan. Treatment may include:

  • Surgery - This treatment removes as much cancer as possible and can often cure the cancer. Surgery is used for smaller cancers that have not spread far beyond the cervix. Many types of surgery are used for cervical cancer.
  • Radiation therapy - Radiation therapy uses high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors.
  • Chemotherapy - Chemotherapy drugs are used to kill cancerous cells. In most cases, chemotherapy works by stopping cancer cells from growing or reproducing and kills the cells. Different types of chemotherapy drugs work in different ways to kill cancer cells.
This content has been reviewed and approved by Myo Thant, MD.
This content was last reviewed August 15, 2010 by Dr. Reshma L. Mahtani.
Latest Cervical Cancer News
Malaria kills twice as many as thought: study

February 3, 2012 — LONDON (Reuters) - Malaria kills more than 1.2 million people worldwide a year, nearly twice as many as previously thought, according to new research published on Friday that questions years of assumptions about the mosquito-borne disease.

Some girls overestimate HPV vaccine protection

January 2, 2012 — CHICAGO (Reuters) - Some adolescent girls who get the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer wrongly think they no longer need to practice safe sex, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Study endorses HPV testing for all women over 30

December 15, 2011 — LONDON (Reuters) - New DNA tests looking for the virus responsible for most cases of cervical cancer make sense for all women aged 30 or over, since they can prevent more cases of cancer than Pap smears alone, Dutch researchers said on Thursday.

Select news items provided by Reuters Health