Maintenance of ovarian function in end-of-life cervical cancer patient following primary surgico-radiotherapy and ovarian transposition

A 35-year-old woman underwent laparoscopic radical hysterectomy, pelvic lymphadenectomy and ovarian transposition for stage IB2 cervical adenocarcinoma. She received adjuvant concurrent chemoradiation for poor pathologic risk factors but had tumor recurrence 20 months after the surgery. Transposed ovaries were uninvolved in the recurrence and progression. Salvage chemotherapy and radiotherapy were given. Despite systemic chemotherapy and repeat pelvic radiotherapy, the patient was able to maintain ovarian function. Ovarian transposition in cervical cancer is an easily performed procedure that does not alter the prognosis of the disease in some cases. Present recommendations for its use should be reevaluated so that more premenopausal cancer patients may benefit from this underutilized procedure.