Women with low-risk cervical cancer can undergo simple instead of radical hysterectomy, according to Canadian-led doctors who say the procedures yield similar oncological outcomes.

The researchers compared pelvic recurrence at three years post-surgery among nearly 700 women and found that simple hysterectomy was non-inferior to radical hysterectomy.

At the same time, the more conservative approach was associated with a lower risk of urinary incontinence or retention, showed the phase III trial results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Eligible patients had low-risk cervical SCCs, adenocarcinomas or adenosquamous carcinomas, with lesions ≤2cm, limited stromal invasion and no evidence of lymph node metastasis on preoperative imaging.