Added: 02/08/2006 |
Cervical Cancer Symptoms - Their Diagnosis, Treatment and StagingCancer is caused by uncontrolled division of cells. This happens because of the mutation of genes that control the division. There are many different factors that can cause such a mutation. It is believed that the main factor that causes cancer is affection of so-called carcinogens. These are substances (chemicals or physical agents) that cause mutation of DNA in cells.
Some of these carcinogens are natural - they are produced by plants as protection means. But there are also many different man-made carcinogens DDT or EDB and the number of such substances is only increasing. There is even a special classification of carcinogens - it is called IARC.
But the word cancer describes not a disease - this term describes the whole class of diseases. One of such diseases is cervical cancer. It is a malignancy of cervix by definition. For women it is the second most usual type of cancer after breast cancer. Cervical cancer symptoms can be different. Of all the other cervical cancer symptoms the most usual is vaginal bleeding.
But the problem is that cervical cancer symptoms do not appear until advanced stages of cancer. Because of the late cervical cancer symptoms screening becomes the main procedure in cervical cancer diagnosis. The procedure known under the name "Pap smear" is usually advised by many doctors. It was developed by Greek-American doctor Georgios Papanikolaou (that is why it is named Pap smear) in 1943.
That is a pretty simple but at the same time very effective test. To collect sample cells cervical swab is used so this procedure is not invasive. All these sample cells are checked for abnormality in laboratory. There is a possibility of error -- a big part of the abnormalities is not caused by cervical cancer but positive result is a sign to perform further tests.
Cervical cancer staging is performed using laboratory examinations - this system is called FIGO. It is maintained by International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics founded in 1954. Work of this organization covers not only cervical cancer staging - they also take care of STDs/AIDS, perinatal health and many other questions. Many different procedures can be used to determine the stage of cervical cancer (these include palpation, intravenous urography, inspection, endocervical curettage, cystoscopy, hysteroscopy, proctoscopy and different kinds of X-ray examination).
As for the treatment of cervical cancer - different procedures can be used for different stages of disease. So-called hysterectomy(when the whole uterus including part of the vagina are removed) is used on stage IA (it is a so-called microinvasive cancer). And if a disease is already on stage IA2 more invasive technique is used - in that case lymph nodes are removed, too.
Of course, such a procedure does not allow maintaining fertility. In some case alternative procedure can also be used. LEEP or cone biopsies (these are local surgical procedures) are less invasive and allow maintaining fertility in most cases. Radiation therapy can also be used in treatment of cervical cancer on earlier stages.
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