Stage 1A2 Micro-invasive Cervical Cancer
Published on Jun 07 2010, in the categories: Stages of disease
Stages are vital when it comes to making a life expectancy prognosis for patients with cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the cervix and like most cancers, in its early stages, it can be eliminated completely through surgery. Beginning with stage 0 and going through stages 1 to 4, this cancer can spread to the lymph nodes, to other organs and throughout the body. Once the cancer becomes invasive, the survival rates decrease and treatment options for more than alleviating symptoms are limited.
Your best weapon against reaching an advanced stage is undergoing a regular Pap screening. This test can detect any abnormalities in the cervix even before they become cancerous. Precancerous conditions, also known as stage 0, are 100% curable.
If cancer has however begun to grow and spread you're best chance is for it not to have advanced further than stage 1 micro-invasive cancer.
Stage 1 cervical cancer is a microcarcinoma which has the following characteristics: it can be diagnosed by microscope only and it is limited to a maximal stromal invasion of 5.0 mm and a maximal horizontal invasion not bigger than 7.0. Whether or not vascular space is involved the stage remains the same.
For stage 1A1 the stromal invasion is no bigger than 3.0mm and for stage 1A2 it can reach 5.0mm. Both these are usually asymptomatic but proximately 33% of the cases were diagnosed after a Pap screening and many are usually diagnosed incidentally when treating CIN.
Stage 1A2 is unfortunately more like invasive cancer and is a little more difficult to cure. For this stage a simple hysterectomy would be a wrong treatment. However, other valid options for treatment remain and some of them are even fertility sparing. The ones that allow you to have babies later on are radical trachelectomy and the cone biopsy both accompanied by PND. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are also valuable weapons against the cancer and are suitable for this stage. These need a certain adaptation to the treatment as, for example, external beam radiotherapy is medically unfit for this stage.
Statistics for this stage are pretty encouraging. With a death rate of less than 3% and overall risk of recurrence of 5%, it's definitely worth getting a regular Pap smear in order to be diagnosed in this stage or earlier even.
All in all this stage should be viewed are curable and treatment and side-effects don't get too aggressive. However, even if cured some follow-up treatment in required. Vault cytology and returning for tests confirming the cure are very important as well as continuing with a healthy life-style and by being aware of the fact that patients that have had the cancer once are at a higher risk to develop it again.
Your best weapon against reaching an advanced stage is undergoing a regular Pap screening. This test can detect any abnormalities in the cervix even before they become cancerous. Precancerous conditions, also known as stage 0, are 100% curable.
If cancer has however begun to grow and spread you're best chance is for it not to have advanced further than stage 1 micro-invasive cancer.
Stage 1 cervical cancer is a microcarcinoma which has the following characteristics: it can be diagnosed by microscope only and it is limited to a maximal stromal invasion of 5.0 mm and a maximal horizontal invasion not bigger than 7.0. Whether or not vascular space is involved the stage remains the same.
For stage 1A1 the stromal invasion is no bigger than 3.0mm and for stage 1A2 it can reach 5.0mm. Both these are usually asymptomatic but proximately 33% of the cases were diagnosed after a Pap screening and many are usually diagnosed incidentally when treating CIN.
Stage 1A2 is unfortunately more like invasive cancer and is a little more difficult to cure. For this stage a simple hysterectomy would be a wrong treatment. However, other valid options for treatment remain and some of them are even fertility sparing. The ones that allow you to have babies later on are radical trachelectomy and the cone biopsy both accompanied by PND. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are also valuable weapons against the cancer and are suitable for this stage. These need a certain adaptation to the treatment as, for example, external beam radiotherapy is medically unfit for this stage.
Statistics for this stage are pretty encouraging. With a death rate of less than 3% and overall risk of recurrence of 5%, it's definitely worth getting a regular Pap smear in order to be diagnosed in this stage or earlier even.
All in all this stage should be viewed are curable and treatment and side-effects don't get too aggressive. However, even if cured some follow-up treatment in required. Vault cytology and returning for tests confirming the cure are very important as well as continuing with a healthy life-style and by being aware of the fact that patients that have had the cancer once are at a higher risk to develop it again.
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