Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Management of Women with Low-Risk Early-Stage Cervical Cancer: A Narrative Review

Radical hysterectomy continues to be the standard treatment for early-stage cervical cancer. Accurate staging plays an important role in the management of cervical cancer, and preoperative imaging is indispensable to ensure appropriate stage assignment and to identify the surgical patient. Many studies have highlighted the need to consider the low-risk patient in a markedly different way from the intermediate- or high-risk patient. The aim of this study is to highlight the most urgent divergences to be addressed in low-risk early cervical cancer patients, such as reducing the radicality of the surgery, avoiding parametriectomy with tumors smaller than 2 cm, replacing bilateral lymphadenectomy with sentinel lymph node dissection, persistence of MIS instead of laparotomy, and preserving fertility. All this evidence is the result of the progress that has been made in recent decades in the early diagnosis, staging, and treatment of cervical cancer, made possible not only by the ever-increasing experience of gynecological oncologists but above all by the increasingly sophisticated imaging techniques that support the work of the clinician.