ArticleEcancermedicalscience2026
Diagnostic value of routine endoscopic studies in staging locally advanced cervical cancer: a multicenter experience from a low and middle-income country.
Article in Ecancermedicalscience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic value of routine cystoscopy and rectosigmoidoscopy in staging locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) in a low - middle - income country (LMIC) setting. Material and methods: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study of 233 patients with LACC (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics 2018 stages IB3-IVB) in Venezuela. All patients underwent clinical examination, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and routine endoscopy. The primary outcome was the confirmation of mucosal invasion by endoscopy in patients without prior clinical or radiological suspicion. Results: Endoscopically confirmed bladder and rectal mucosal invasion occurred in 6.0% and 3.0% of patients, respectively. In 95% of all positive cases, suspicion was already present on MRI or clinical symptoms. MRI demonstrated high negative predictive values for bladder (95.9%, confidence interval (CI) 95% 92.5-98.1) and rectal (97.4% CI 95% 92.2-97.8) invasion. Notably, no treatment plan was modified solely based on endoscopic findings. Routine endoscopy was negative in 94% of cystoscopies and 97% of rectosigmoidoscopies. Conclusion: Routine endoscopic staging in LACC showed a very low diagnostic yield and no impact on therapeutic decisions in this LMIC setting. A selective, imaging-guided approach is safe, resource-efficient and aligns with international guidelines, advocating for a change in local protocols. These findings strongly support discontinuing routine endoscopy in LMIC staging protocols.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.