Objectives Standard treatment in early-stage cervical cancer is a radical hysterectomy (RH) with pelvic lymphadenectomy. In women who wish to preserve fertility radical vaginal trachelectomy has been proposed; however, this is not feasible in larger tumors, and nerve-sparing surgery is not possible. Nerve-sparing radical abdominal trachelectomy (NSRAT) overcomes these disadvantages.

Methods Case-control study of women with early-stage cervical cancer (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics IA2-IB) submitted to NSRAT from 2000 until 2011. Women submitted to nerve-sparing RH with early-stage cervical cancer were included as control subjects.

Results Twenty-eight patients and 77 control subjects were included. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was administered in 3 women before NSRAT because the linear extension was or exceeded 40 mm. Local recurrence rate was 3.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.00–10.6) in the NSRAT group compared with 7.8% (95% CI, 1.7–13.9) in the control group (P = 0.44). No significant difference was found between both groups regarding disease-free survival and survival. The overall pregnancy rate was 52.9% (95% CI, 28.7%–77.2%). The mean follow-up was 47.3 months (range, 6–122 months) for NSRAT and 51.8 months (11–129.6 months) for nerve-sparing RH.

Conclusions Nerve-sparing radical abdominal trachelectomy seems safe and effective in women with early-stage cervical cancer who wish to preserve fertility. Respective women should be informed about this treatment option, especially if the tumor is too large for radical vaginal trachelectomy.