Fudan University Tumor Hospital has written a happy ending - and perhaps a new beginning - to a new technique it introduced in early 2000 that allows surgeons to remove a patient's cervical cancer without removing her womb.

The hospital said yesterday that the first baby has been delivered by a patient who underwent the fertility-preserving therapy.

The traditional therapy for cervical cancer is to remove the entire cervix and the womb.

The new therapy, which was developed in France in 1991, is used only in very early stage tumors where the cancer has not spread and the patient has a strong desire to give birth.

In this operation, surgeons remove all of the cancer, but they leave behind the internal opening of the cervix and then stitch the womb with a so-called vaginal cuff.

The local tumor hospital is one of the first domestic facilities to carry out the procedure, which is called a radical trachelectomy.

The 37-year-old Zhejiang Province native who just gave birth was identified only by her surname, Lou. Lou's cancer was removed two years ago, and she gave birth to a three-kilogram boy through Caesarean section on September 8.

"Lou came to me in November 2006 and expressed a strong desire to have a baby, since her daughter had died of brain cancer," said Dr Wu Xiaohua, director of the hospital's gynecology department and Lou's chief surgeon. "Given her disease and personal situation, we launched the fertility-preserving therapy."

After following her for one year after surgery and detecting no trace of cancer, the doctors gave the green light to her pregnancy.

"All the medical staff are happy about the new baby, which set a precedent in the city," Wu said.

He added that the therapy carries with it high requirements in patient selection and the ability to properly diagnose her condition.

"International research has found that patients undergoing this surgery have a similar chance of cancer recurrence and mortality as those undergoing the traditional process," Wu said.

(Shanghai Daily October 21, 2008)