A minimally invasive treatment of uterine cancer has proven equally effective to traditional methods and causes less harm to patients, according to a clinical study at the U. Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
The recently published study documented the recovery of 2,616 women with uterine cancer who underwent one of two treatment methods, gynecologic oncologist Dr. Joan Walker said during a press conference Tuesday at the Peggy and Charles Stephenson Cancer Center.
One-third of patients were treated with laparotomies, or open surgery requiring large abdominal incisions, which had served as the traditional means of treatment, Walker said.
The remainder of the study’s participants received laparoscopies, which allow surgeons to operate through incisions generally 0.5 to 1.5 centimeters in size, Walker said.
Women receiving either treatment had virtually identical survival rates, according to the results of the study, which were co-authored by Walker and published in February’s “Journal of Clinical Oncology.”
“Therefore, we have the ability to recommend that laparoscopy, or minimally invasive surgery, is the preferred method for treating uterine cancer,” Walker said.
Laparoscopies were known to cause less short-term harm to patients than laparotomies, but researchers conducted a five-year follow-up period to gauge the long-term effectiveness of the newer, less invasive procedure, Walker said.
“When you change technology, you change the way you treat someone because you believe it is better for [patients’] short-term outcomes, meaning going home from the hospital quicker, having less pain, having fewer infectious complications,” Walker said. “That’s great, but it’s not great if the patients have a higher rate of failure, … recurrences or have a lower rate of survival.”
Traditional laparotomies are generally conducted through large incisions in the abdomen and result in more pain during recovery, longer hospital stays and a longer time before the return of proper bowel functions, Walker said.
Laparoscopies, by comparison, required a median hospital stay of two days after the surgery was completed and demonstrated fewer complications due to infections at the incision, Walker said.
“The first six weeks there is a marked difference in how people feel,” Walker said.
Uterine cancer will affect more than 47,000 women and claim the lives of about 8,000 women in the U.S. this year, according to statistics from the National Cancer Institute.
Carolyn Zacharitz, Oklahoma resident, was diagnosed with uterine cancer shortly before deciding to participate in the Health Sciences Center study, she said at Tuesday’s press conference.
“If I was able to participate in a clinical study that might help someone else down the line, I was happy to do that,” she said.
The study’s results come as a reassurance to Zacharitz, she said, because the laparoscopic procedure’s less-harmful nature, coupled with its effectiveness, has proven to be a win-win situation.
“This study is very reassuring because … now I have even more confidence that the long-term results will be the same, so I’m very grateful.”