Obesity May Degrade Chemotherapy's Efficacy

Dr. Crisp responded that she would not eliminate a patient for radical hysterectomy solely because of obesity. Because such patients are at greater risk of comorbidity, she said that diabetes, cardiac disease, and pulmonary disease should be assessed to make sure the patient is an appropriate candidate for surgery.

Robotic surgery may expand the surgical options for women with cervical cancer, Dr. Aaron Shafer reported in the third study. Dr. Shafer, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, compared outcomes for 31 women who had robotic type III radical hysterectomies to the experience of 48 case controls who underwent open procedures at that institution. The groups included 13 and 11 obese patients, respectively. Of the robotic group, 15% were morbidly obese.

Dr. Shafer reported that the robotic group had significantly less mean blood loss (119 mL vs. 562 mL), greater lymph node yield on average (38.4 vs. 22.3), and shorter median hospital stays (1 vs. 3.5 days).