Archive for the Uterine cancer category.

Uterine cancer: diagnosis

Posted on April 8th, 2008 by Canadian Health in Uterine cancer

The latter two studies have received tremendous notoriety. They are the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast Project study and the Stockholm study. A total of 42 corpus cancers were reported in these two studies. Approximately 5,000 patients taking tamoxifen for various periods and at different doses were compared with patients not taking tamoxifen. The number dropped to 14 using a very conservative latency period of 2 years, as well as elimination of non-adenocarcinoma malignancies, those who were randomized to take tamoxifen but never did, and the patient who was said to have endometrial cancer but on evaluative histology was thought not to. Many of the patients had the diagnosis of corpus cancer made within a very short time of taking tamoxifen (2 months). Obviously, the endometrial cancer was not caused by tamoxifen. Over the last 10 years in the world’s literature, 250 endometrial cancers were identified. During that time, it has been estimated that about 3 million women took tamoxifen for some 7 million woman-years of use. In the United States during this time frame there have been approximately 365,000 women with corpus cancer. All patients who may have had tamoxifen-associated endometrial cancer have not been reported in the literature; however, these numbers would suggest that if tamoxifen is associated with endometrial cancer, that relationship is very minimal. It should also be remembered that women who have breast cancer are also at an increased risk for endometrial cancer (at least twofold to threefold increase). Women with breast cancer should have annual gynecologic examinations, including Pap tests and bimanual and rectovaginal examinations. Although any abnormality should be evaluated, data do not support routine annual biopsies for women taking tamoxifen.
Canadian hgh
Diagnosis
The cost of screening for adenocarcinoma and its precursors in the total population would be prohibitive. The most common symptom of corpus cancer is uterine bleeding. Of all endometrial cancers, 75% occur in the postmenopausal patient, although only 20% of postmenopausal women will have a genital malignancy. As the patient’s age increases after menopause, there is a greater probability that the postmenopausal bleeding is due to a malignancy.
Spermamax news
Irregular bleeding during the perimenopause may be interpreted by both the patient and physician as “going through the menopause.” The menstrual bleeding should become lighter and less frequent as a women goes through this time. Any other bleeding should be evaluated as if she were having postmenopausal bleeding. In the premenopausal patient, the high index of suspicion should be maintained if a diagnosis of endometrial cancer is made. Prolonged heavy menstrual periods or intermenstrual spotting may suggest further evaluation. Many premenopausal patients with adenocarcinoma of the endometrium are obese and anovulatory.
Cheap cialis online
An in-office endometrial biopsy is probably the simplest and easiest way to rule out endometrial cancer. Adequate specimens should be obtained for proper evaluation. If cancer is not present, then further evaluation is probably not needed unless the patient continues to be symptomatic. A formal dilation and curettage, which used to be routine for postmenopausal bleeding evaluation, is no longer justified as the first diagnostic procedure. Many clinicians advocate dilation and curettage for women who have atypical hyperplasia because a considerable number of these women will have a coexistent, well-differentiated adenocarcinoma of the endometrium. Although vaginal ultrasonography may accurately identify endometrial thickness, there is no agreement regarding the thickness of endometrium that should cause concern. Some researchers have suggested 3 mm, others 5 mm or even 8 mm. In the patient not taking tamoxifen, 10 mm or more should prompt an endometrial biopsy. In patients who have been taking tamoxifen, very thick endometriums (eg, 20, 30, or 40 mm) have been described. It now appears that a thick endometrium is a false-positive indicator, because ultrasonography of the uterine cavity after saline instillation (sonohysterogram) has shown that this thickness may be due to large polyps or thickened proximal myometrium falsely identified as endometrium. Hysteroscopy has also been suggested as an accurate way of identifying significant endometrial pathology. Hysteroscopy can be performed easily in the office; however, the accuracy depends upon operator skill. If lesions are seen, biopsies are then taken. The endometrial biopsy may be the best diagnostic procedure, with ultrasonography and hysteroscopy reserved if further evaluation if needed.

Uterine cancer

Posted on April 4th, 2008 by Canadian Health in Uterine cancer

Screening and Etiology
Cancer of the uterine corpus is the most common gynecologic malignancy. Approximately 36,000 women per year develop uterine cancer in the United States, making it the fourth most common cancer in women. Unopposed estrogen use results in a fourfold increase in adenocarcinoma of the endometrium. Fortunately, the use of progestins has decreased this risk by approximately 50%.
Generic viagra information
The incidence of endometrial cancer in the United States is approximately 0.7 per 1,000 women. Screening and autopsy studies suggest that there may be many occult, undiagnosed endometrial cancers because they are asymptomatic.

Endometrial adenocarcinoma occurs during both the reproductive and the menopausal years. The median age of onset is 61 years; the largest number of affected patients are between the ages of 50 and 59 years. Almost one fourth of all adenocarcinomas of the endometrium are diagnosed before menopause.
Cheap hgh online
Multiple factors have been associated with adenocarcinoma of the endometrium. The use of combination oral contraceptives decreases the risk of endometrial cancer. Women who use oral contraceptives have a 0.5 risk ratio (relative risk) of developing endometrial cancer compared with those who have never used oral contraceptives. This protection occurs with as little as 12 months of use, and protection continues for at least 10 years. The use of oral contraceptives is believed to prevent about 2,000 cases of endometrial cancer each year.
Tramadol online pharmacy
Two distinct phenotypes are associated with the onset of endometrial cancer. The first is women with late-onset menopause who are obese and nulliparous. If all three factors are present, the risk for developing endometrial cancer is increased by about fivefold. Such patients tend to have well-differentiated, superficially invasive cancer for which simple hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy are therapeutic, with a long-term survival rate of 95% or greater. Several studies have suggested that of these women who develop endometrial cancer, those who were taking estrogen therapy have just as good, if not longer, survival rates as those who were not taking estrogen therapy.

A second phenotype is characterized as nonestrogenic. These women tend to be multiparous, thin, and African American, and they usually have histologically poorly differentiated, deeply invasive lesions that may have an extrauterine extent. The prognosis of these women is considerably worse and may account for decreased survival rates in African-American women compared with the rates for white women.

There is growing concern that the increased use of tamoxifen for therapeutic and prophylactic indications in breast cancer may lead to an increased number of endometrial cancers. Tamoxifen is an antiestrogen that competes with estrogen at the receptor site. Other modes of action such as growth factors could be just as important or more so than its competitive action at the receptor site. It appears that specific end organs in the genital tract may respond to tamoxifen in an entirely different manner than do the breasts. In the premenopausal patient, serum estradiol levels can be much higher than estradiol’s peak level during the menstrual cycle, yet atrophic changes in the vagina and uterus are present. In postmenopausal women, it appears that tamoxifen produces a stimulatory effect on the uterus, yet atrophic changes in the vagina are noted and significant vasomotor symptoms are present.
Canadian Zithromax
All of the prospective, randomized studies that identified endometrial cancers in breast cancer patients receiving tamoxifen therapy were designed to evaluate the efficacy of the drug in breast cancer, but did not examine the safety issues of the drug. Patients taking tamoxifen therapy develop uterine bleeding and have other gynecologic symptoms to a greater degree than those not taking tamoxifen. Prospective, randomized studies comparing the number of endometrial cancers in the tamoxifen group with the number in the no-tamoxifen group suggest, but do not positively identify, a relationship between tamoxifen and this cancer. To date, 15 studies have compared tamoxifen either with placebo or no drug in varying doses for different time intervals with nonuniform median follow-up times. Of these studies, 12 noted no difference in the number of endometrial cancers between the tamoxifen and the no-tamoxifen groups, one noted a significantly decreased incidence of endometrial cancer in the tamoxifen group, and two noted an increased number of corpus cancers in the tamoxifen group.
Canadian pharmacy