Current Women's Health Reviews - Volume 7, Issue 4, 2011

Endometrial adenocarcinoma is a high prevalence tumor in the industrialized world, and whose incidence is progressively increasing. Its association with obesity, diabetes and sedentary lifestyles explain the increase of cases in urban cultures and possibly it should be considered as an indicator of poor social health, in this case, secondary to the progress of an industrialized population. Globally analyzed, it can be considered a tumo Read More

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy in western countries. In United States, 42000 estimated new cases were diagnosed in 2009, approximately 7780 women died from this cancer last year. This malignancy has a five year survival rate around 80%, thanks to its early diagnosis. The surgical management of endometrial cancer includes hysterectomy as main surgical procedure. The role of lym Read More

Laparoscopy for the treatment of endometrial cancer has been shown to be technically feasible and safe with a reduction in perioperative complications and length of hospital stay (cost-efficiency). We should consider laparoscopy as the surgical technique of choice reserving laparotomy when there is a formal contraindication to the laparoscopic-vaginal approaches.

Robotic surgery is becoming increasingly popular in most surgical specialties, including gynecology. This review describes the technology of the da Vinci systems and the results obtained for the robotic approach to endometrial cancer as compared to conventional laparoscopy and laparotomy.

The lymph node status is a key factor in staging, prognosis and adjuvant treatment planning of endometrial cancer (EC). Systematic pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy is the only reliable procedure to assess the lymph-node status and it should be the standard of care in most cases with risk factors for node metastasis. However, it has no therapeutic benefit on the course of the disease for the majority of patients wit Read More

Background: In endometrial adenocarcinoma the assessment of depth myometrial invasion (DMI) is one of the most important features for staging and prognostic factor. It is also important to determine the therapeutical procedure. Although it can be establish by image techniques, the intraoperative assessment by frozen sections is a more accurate method. Material and Methods: This is a retrospective study of 93 endo Read More

Endometrial cancer is the most frequent gynaecological carcinoma with an increasing incidence. However, this tumour is usually identified in its early stages due to its symptomatology appearing fairly soon. This fact allows for a diagnosis in early stages in most patients, thus providing a good prognosis with an overall survival rate at 5 years higher than 95%. The classical management has been hysterectomy with bilateral salpi Read More

The past several years have witnessed a growing level of attention devoted to understand how cancer affects the lives of those touched by this illness. This understanding goes beyond the physical suffering and sequalae, the limited focus on the cure to embrace a broader dimension that concerns psychological adjustments and mental well-being during the cancer trajectory. It would be rudimentary not to perceive this traj Read More

Since the widespread introduction of cervical cancer screening programs the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer has declined. In general, cervical cancer screening programs are viewed as a valuable component of preventive health services, but are also associated with negative effects for participants. The side effects of cervical cancer screening include anxiety, false reassurance and overdiagnosis. The purpose Read More

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal of gynaecological malignancies. Although early detection efforts have been relatively unsuccessful in reducing mortality at the population level, ovarian cancer screening continues to be offered to some women. Testing for mutations in the BRCA1/2 genes can determine whether women have a heightened risk of developing ovarian cancer and those found to be at high risk are closely followed Read More

Gynecological cancer is the fourth most common form of cancer among women. Over the past few decades, the growing number of survivors has been forced to cope with the consequences of the disease. Of these consequences, the impact of cancer on reproduction has been receiving increasing attention. Research shows that the health care of these women poses challenges other than medical ones. Although the inclu Read More

This study reviews articles describing cultural and ethnic influences on health outcomes for women diagnosed with gynecological cancer along the cancer continuum: 1) early detection and screening, 2) treatment, and 3) survivorship. Specifically, this study investigates what ethnic and cultural differences influence cancer outcomes and explores cultural factors that are active along the cancer continuum. Studies addressing the Read More

Gynaecological cancer patients experience psychological morbidity due to the aggressive nature of the illness and treatment. In the last three decades, researchers have been developing studies to investigate the efficacy of psychological interventions to be used in this group of patients. The present review addresses the most recent knowledge about counselling and cognitive behaviour interventions to improve psycholog Read More

External cephalic version (ECV) is an obstetric maneuver that rotates the fetus to a cephalic presentation in case of breech, oblique or transverse lie presentations. During the past 14 years, the most relevant studies (n >200 patients) reveal success rates ranging from 37% to 78.7%. The contraindications of ECV are: when a clear indication for a cesarean delivery exists, fetal compromise, placenta praevia, placenta abrup Read More