Loreto's Case
Cervical cancer with metastases in both ovaries, a recurrence six years later and one question that shaped everything: how many lymph nodes would have to be removed in a second operation.
Loreto's Testimony
Loreto tells in her own words how, after six years free of disease, she faced a second operation with a factor no report recorded: the secondary lymphoedema she had lived with since the first surgery. She looked for a team that would explain what they were going to do with her lymph nodes before operating.
- 2018: cervical cancer with metastases in both ovaries, operated on in Seville
- Chemotherapy and radiotherapy afterwards
- Secondary lymphoedema caused by the extensive lymphadenectomy of the first operation
- Six years free of disease, until 2024
- Referred to Dr. Torrent by her lymphoedema specialist in Barcelona
- Surgical protocol that limits lymph node removal to the strictly necessary
- Surgery scheduled within a few weeks in Barcelona
- More disease found during the operation itself, resolved in the same procedure with a cytoreduction
- Today she lives with peritoneal carcinomatosis and lung metastases, with good quality of life
When the priority is not only to operate, but how to operate
Loreto's story begins in 2018, in Seville, when she is operated on for cervical cancer with metastases in both ovaries. After surgery she receives chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and from then on she stays free of disease for six years.
That first operation, however, left a consequence that has been with her ever since. The large number of lymph nodes removed caused secondary lymphoedema: chronic swelling that appears when the lymphatic system loses the ability to drain the operated area normally. For Loreto this was not a minor detail, but something that already limited her daily life considerably.
So when the disease returned in 2024 and a second operation was proposed, her first question was not about prognosis. It was about the lymph nodes. "I could not afford to keep having nodes taken out like that, at random", is how she puts it. Every additional lymphadenectomy could irreversibly worsen a lymphoedema that was already affecting her.
It was one of the lymphoedema specialists treating her in Barcelona who recommended Dr. Juan José Torrent. Loreto called the team to clear up her doubts before deciding anything, and got the answer she needed: the surgery would follow an up-to-date protocol, aimed at removing the smallest number of lymph nodes necessary and at harming the patient as little as possible.
That conversation is what made her decide to have surgery in Barcelona. Not because of a promise of cure, but because of something more concrete: understanding what was going to be done to her body, and why. Surgery was scheduled quickly and carried out at the Quenet Torrent Institute, within a complex surgical oncology approach. During the operation itself more disease was found than expected, and it was resolved in the same procedure with a cytoreduction.
"As well as being a great professional, he is very approachable and very human. I owe it to him and his team that I am still alive today, and with quality of life." Loreto, patient
Today Loreto lives with peritoneal carcinomatosis and lung metastases. She is not free of disease and she does not hide it. What she does describe is a state in which she can get on with her life, a team that is close to her and a disease under control: in cases like hers the aim is not always cure, but turning the disease into a chronic condition while keeping quality of life.
Her experience leaves a useful message for any patient facing a second operation: the consequences of the first one are part of the decision. Asking about them, and requesting a second opinion at a centre with specific experience, can change both the oncological result and the life that follows.
Medical team that treated Loreto
Complex surgical oncology with a lymph node preservation protocol
Dr. Juan José Torrent
Oncological Surgeon
Specialist in complex oncological surgery. Expert in peritoneal carcinomatosis and HIPEC, recognized for the close support he gives his patients.
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