When cervical cancer has been detected or has returned following initial treatment with surgery, radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy, it is said to be recurrent or relapsed. The course of treatment for relapsed cervical cancer depends on what treatment a patient has previously received and where the recurrence is located. Some patients who have recurrence of cervical cancer within the pelvis can be treated with additional surgery or with radiation therapy, if no radiation therapy was given previously. Recurrence of cervical cancer outside the pelvis is difficult to treat.