Cancers of the Uterine Cervix and Endometrium and Gestational Trophoblastic Disease

Abstract

In many countries, carcinoma of the uterine cervix is the most common cancer in women. In advanced stages, treatment of this disease is complicated, expensive, and often unsuccessful. New data suggest strongly that venereal factors play a causative role in the development of this disease. Human papilloma virus (HPV) is the most important of these factors, and this finding may lead to a vaccine that could protect against cervical cancer. When medical resources are available, screening of asymptomatic women, with examination of exfoliated cells from the cervix (the Papanicolaou method, known as the “Pap” test), can result in detection of premalignant and early small cancers of the cervix that can be easily cured. Thus, increasingly, the emphasis in controlling this cancer has been on screening of asymptomatic women, and in the future it is likely to be on the prevention of critical venereal infections.