Patients who receive radiotherapy should be monitored closely to assess treatment response. Tumors may be expected to regress for up to 3 months after radiotherapy. During the pelvic examination, progressive shrinkage of the cervix and possible stenosis of the cervical os and surrounding upper vagina is expected and should be noted. During rectovaginal examination, careful palpation of the uterosacral and cardinal ligaments for nodularity is important. Cytologic assessment by FNA of suspicious areas should be performed to allow early diagnosis of persistent disease. In addition to the pelvic examination, the supraclavicular and inguinal lymph nodes should be carefully examined, and cervical or vaginal assessment should be performed every 3 months for 2 years and then every 6 months for the next 3 years. Endocervical curettage may be performed in patients with large central tumors.
Radiography of the chest may be performed yearly in patients who have advanced disease.
Metastasis to the lung was reported in 1.5% of cases. Solitary nodules are present in 25% of cases with metastasis. Resection of a solitary nodule in the absence of other persistent disease may yield some long-term survivors (160). Although intravenous pyelography (IVP) is not a part of routine postradiotherapy surveillance, it should be performed if a pelvic mass is detected or if urinary symptoms warrant evaluation. The finding of ureteral obstruction after radiotherapy in the absence of a palpable mass may indicate unresectable pelvic sidewall disease, but this finding should be confirmed, usually by FNA cytologic assessment (161).
Patients who had radical hysterectomy and who are at high risk for recurrence may benefit from early recognition of recurrence because they might be saved with radiation therapy.
In these patients, a routine CT urogram 6 to 12 months after surgery may be beneficial. After radical hysterectomy, about 80% of recurrences are detected within 2 years (162). The larger the primary lesion, the shorter the median time is to recurrence (163).
The incidence of invasive cervical cancer associated with pregnancy is 1.2 in 10,000 (164). A Pap test should be performed on all pregnant patients at the initial prenatal visit, and any grossly suspicious lesions should be biopsied. Diagnosis is often delayed during pregnancy because bleeding is attributed to pregnancy-related complications. If the result of the Pap test is positive for malignant cells, and invasive cancer cannot be diagnosed using colposcopy and biopsy, a diagnostic conization procedure may be necessary. Conization in the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with hemorrhagic and infectious complications, and an abortion rate as high as 33% (165,166). Because conization subjects the mother and fetus to complications, it should not be performed before the second trimester and only in patients with colposcopy findings consistent with cancer, biopsy-proven microinvasive cervical cancer, or strong cytologic evidence of invasive cancer. Inadequate colposcopic examination may be encountered during pregnancy in patients who had prior ablative therapy. Close follow-up throughout pregnancy may allow the cervix to evert and develop an ectropion, allowing satisfactory colposcopy in the second or third trimester. Patients with obvious cervical carcinoma may undergo cervical biopsy and clinical staging similar to that of nonpregnant patients.