Prof. Ma Ding the academician in Tongji Medical College initiated a new postoperative therapy for cervical cancer patients to retain ovarian endocrine function.

Cervical cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors among women. At present, more and more women in China are diagnosed with cervical cancer at a younger age. For young patients who haven’t bear children, how to retain their fertility function has become the researchers’ concern. Recently, Prof. Ma Ding of Tongji Hospital initiatived a new postoperative therapy for cervical cancer. He said he hoped to recommend the new treatment option to international treatment guidelines to benefit cervical cancer patients worldwide.

On March 27, United States local time, Ma Ding primarily publicized the results of a phase III prospective clinical study of cervical cancer in China at the 2018 American Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) Annual Meeting. He proposed that using postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy instead of international standard concurrent radiotherapy and chemotherapy, cervical cancer patients can still retain ovarian endocrine function after the removal of the uterus without the loss of curative effect. The results of this study have attracted widespread attention from international counterparts. Professor Bradley J. Monk, medical director of the Department of Gynaecology at the American Institute of Oncology and a gynecological oncologist at the University of Arizona, commented: "It is not limited to prolonging life, but maintaining the patient’s living quality. The research is very meaningful."

The living quality of patients with cervical cancer after hysterectomy is easily overlooked. According to the international guidelines, if there are high-risk recurrence factors such as lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion, etc., we need to perform concurrent radiotherapy and chemotherapy after surgery. Radiation radiotherapy has devastating damage to female ovaries and other reproductive organs, which causes the loss of endocrine function in the ovary and the appearance of perimenopausal symptoms in advance, which seriously affects their living quality.

“In the past, the popular treatments guided by NCCN were mostly from western clinical studies. In fact, Asia is the region of highest incidence of cervical cancer, especially in China, which accounts for about one-third of cases. As for clinical research on cervical cancer, China is the most vocal in the clinical research of cervical cancer.” Prof. Ma Ding Introduced. He believes that successful treatment not only extends life, but also preserves the patient's living quality.

After more than six years of research, Ma Ding’s team has studied 357 samples of practical analysis. They found that the survival rate of patients taking the postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy is nearly equal to that of the international standard therapy. What’s more, the postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy avoids the damage to the pelvic organs, which greatly enhances women's living quality.

In recent years, the starting age of cervical cancer is 5-10 years earlier than that of year 2000. For young patients who haven’t giving birth, it’s a double blow to remove the uterus. As early as 10 years ago, Ma Ding’s team began to try to preserve the patient’s uterus and fertility by performing cervical conization or extensive cervical resection after the chemotherapy. Up to now, 27 patients have benefited from this new treatment and 12 babies were given birth.