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Cervical Cancer Care

When you’re a patient at Swedish, we don’t just treat your cervical cancer – we treat you. We use the most advanced treatments to create a care plan that’s personalized to your needs. We also support you and your loved ones with a full range of services throughout your entire cancer journey. The result is effective, whole-person care for the body, mind and spirit.

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Phone: 1-855-XCANCER

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Why Choose Us for Cervical Cancer Care?

At Swedish, we see the life in you. Together, let’s finish cancer – so you don’t have to miss any of life’s special moments.

No two patients, or their treatment plans, are alike. This is why, at Swedish, women with cervical cancer – as well as women with ovarian and uterine cancer – receive care through a nationally recognized gynecological cancer program. This includes the expertise of a renowned team of physicians, surgeons and other specialists. All Swedish cervical-cancer patients benefit from a multidisciplinary approach to care that encompasses leading-edge imaging techniques, the latest in treatment options and a full selection of high-quality support services. Members of our multidisciplinary care teams meet regularly to share information and discuss patient cases, in order to determine an integrated course of care for each person. Your oncology team will work with you directly to design a treatment plan that fits your personal needs. It’s an approach that combines leading-edge treatment with the compassionate care Swedish is known for. Why? Because we know this results in the best outcomes.

As a patient, you’ll be supported through your entire cancer journey by a multidisciplinary cancer care team. You’ll be treated by board-certified gynecologic oncologists or medical oncologists and fellowship-trained pathologists. You may also be treated by gynecologists to preserve fertility and sexual function. Our world-class radiation oncologists use the most advanced treatments such as brachytherapy, a highly focused radiation treatment, and techniques that enhance the effectiveness or reduce the toxicity of radiation. It’s a team-based approach to cervical cancer care. Your care team may include oncology nurse navigators and other cancer specialists. We also provide you and your family with a full range of support services well beyond conventional treatment, from genetic counseling and education to nutrition and pain management.

Learn more about the experts who make up our multidisciplinary cancer care teams.

Cancer doesn’t discriminate, but access to great cervical cancer care hasn’t always been the same for everyone. At Swedish, we are deeply committed to making sure every patient we treat has access to the best cancer care. We offer various location-specific services to help our patients receive equitable care, such as translation for non-English-speaking patients, telehealth and transportation assistance. We value, respect and support the racial, ethnic, religious, gender, sexual and spiritual identities of each member of our diverse communities, and we welcome all patients, regardless of their ability to pay. We aim to make sure every patient is treated equally and with dignity – whoever you are, and wherever you're at.

At any given time, the Swedish Cancer Institute offers patients more than 140 clinical-research studies involving most types of cancers. Clinical trials give patients access to promising new medications and procedures before they are widely available. Such trials are also the primary way that progress is made in finding better approaches to treatment and cure. Additionally, our physician specialists collaborate with other regional and national research groups, including Southwest Oncology Group, National Cancer Institute, Puget Sound Oncology Consortium and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

About Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is a type of gynecological cancer. It occurs when cancer cells form in the cervix, which is in the lower part of the uterus. The expert oncology teams at Swedish use the most effective therapies to treat patients with every type of cervical cancer and its related conditions, including:

Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)
Squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL)
Squamous cell carcinoma

Testing and Diagnostics

Personalized Treatment for Cervical Cancer

We take a team approach to your cervical cancer treatment because we know this offers the best success in controlling and curing cancer. Your multidisciplinary cancer care team will work with you to design an individualized cancer care plan, from diagnosis to post-treatment support. We offer many different therapies across our Swedish locations. Depending on your condition, your personal care plan may include one or more of the following:

Systemic Therapies Surgical Therapies Radiation Therapies Additional Therapies

Systemic Therapies

Systemic therapies travel through the bloodstream and affect cells in other body parts. They are used for patients whose cancer has spread to other areas of the body or if there’s a high risk of spread. Sophisticated genetic analysis allows us to target therapies to specific DNA mutations that cause cancer cells to develop and grow. Systemic therapies include:

Chemotherapy is the systemic use of cytotoxic chemicals to kill cancer cells. Today there are many medications (e.g., biological medications, immune treatments, targeted therapies) that do not fit the classic definition of chemotherapy yet are often included in this category.

Clinical trials represent research protocols that include the use of new drugs or drug combinations in a specific clinical situation.

Immunotherapy uses drugs to allow the body’s own immune system to more effectively find and destroy cancer cells.

Surgical Therapies

Surgical therapies involve an operation or procedure to remove cancer from the body. Surgery may be the main treatment for some invasive cancers, but it’s only one part of the entire treatment plan. Surgical therapies include:

Fertility-sparing cervical surgery is a procedure for treating cancers of the reproductive organs. It involves removal of the cervix while preserving the uterus and ovaries.

This procedure has the potential to preserve a patient’s ability to conceive and have children in cases where the cancer is detected early and has not spread significantly.

This advanced procedure requires a sophisticated facility and equipment, along with highly specialized physicians. It is available at some Providence locations.

Pelvic exenteration is surgical removal of the lower colon, bladder and rectum. In women, the cervix, vagina, ovaries and surrounding lymph nodes may also be removed.

Open cervical surgery is a procedure to replace a diseased cervical disk in the spine with an artificial disk. This treatment allows for greater flexibility than removing the disk and fusing the remaining disks together.

Laparoscopic cervical surgery is a video camera-assisted procedure to remove the uterus and other reproductive organs.

Robotic cervical surgery is robotic-assisted spine surgery that allows surgeons to precisely implant screws into the cervical vertebrae.

Radiation Therapies

Radiation therapy uses high-energy radiation from a source like X-rays or photons to kill cancer cells or shrink tumors. It may be part of a treatment plan that also includes systemic therapies and/or surgery. Radiation is sometimes used to help ease a patient’s pain or discomfort. Radiation therapies include:

Brachytherapy is an approach to delivering radiation treatment from a source implanted inside the body. These sources may be placed either permanently or temporarily at the tumor site.

By delivering radiation directly into a tumor, this technique spares the surrounding normal tissue any exposure to radiation and the side effects that it may bring.

This advanced procedure requires a sophisticated facility and equipment, along with highly specialized physicians and support. It is available at some Swedish locations.

Interstitial high dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy is a specialized brachytherapy technique in which rapidly emitting radiation sources are placed briefly inside the body through a needle catheter to irradiate the target tumor.

By delivering high-dose radiation directly into a tumor, this technique can reduce the number of treatments needed for a patient. The surrounding normal tissue is spared exposure to radiation and the side effects that it may bring.

This advanced procedure requires a sophisticated facility and equipment, along with highly specialized physicians and support. It is available at some Swedish locations.

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) are advanced types of radiation therapies. IMRT uses advanced technology to manipulate the radiation beams to conform to the shape of a tumor. VMAT is a subtype of IMRT in which the machine actively delivers radiation beams while moving in an arc around the patient.

This method of radiation delivery offers next-generation capabilities. The arc-based therapy provided via VMAT delivers high doses of radiation to more focused areas, reducing side effects and the overall treatment time for the patient. This treatment is particularly effective at treating several types of cancer while at the same time reducing toxicity and harm to vital organs.

This procedure is one of several new ways to deliver radiation therapy. It requires a sophisticated facility and equipment, along with highly specialized physicians. It is available at some Swedish locations.

Stereotactic radiation (SABR/SBRT) is a group of treatments that includes stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and stereotactic ablative radiation (SABR) – both of which are adaptations of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) – for the treatment of targets in the body, but outside the brain. Similar to SRS, these techniques deliver very high doses of radiation using sophisticated motion management and patient immobilization techniques.

The number of radiation treatments is minimal and may range from one to five treatments delivered over one to two weeks.

Surface-guided radiation therapy (SGRT/SIGRT) is an approach to radiation targeting that offers real-time beam guidance from face and body surface-recognition systems.

This treatment is particularly effective at treating several types of cancer while at the same time reducing toxicity and harm to vital organs, thus minimizing side effects.

This advanced procedure requires a sophisticated facility and equipment, along with highly specialized physicians. It is available at some Swedish locations.

Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) is a radiation planning and treatment technique in which three-dimensional (3D) imaging enables improved targeting for radiation treatment. 3D planning with CT imaging makes radiation treatment much more conformal, or tailored to the target.

Additional Therapies

Additional therapies may also be part of the treatment plan for a small number of patients. These may include:

Interventional radiology is an invasive procedure guided by radiologic imaging. This approach may be used to implant a port, or vascular access device, in order to obtain diagnostic material, remove fluid from the chest or abdomen, or deliver treatment locally.

You’ll also be provided with supportive therapies to prevent or relieve symptoms and to keep you as comfortable as possible throughout the course of your treatment, such as:

Oncofertility may involve a range of therapies with the intent of preserving a patient's ability to have children after cancer treatment. This may be sperm banking for men, or more complex interventions for women.

With improved outcomes for many cancers, preserving a patient’s fertility is important and can offer hope for a full life in the future.

Several of our cancer centers offer fertility preservation procedures. Our dedicated team is here to provide personalized care and assist patients in making informed decisions about reproductive health before, during, and after cancer treatment.

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Accreditations

We are proud to see our dedication to our cancer patients recognized by some of the most well-respected programs and institutions in the United States. Several of our Swedish locations have achieved the following accreditations: