Gynecological cancer: the most common, risk factors, and treatments
El Dr. Álvarez Bernardi, this is Head of the Gynecological Oncology Service in the Women's Unit at Ruber International HospitalIn this article, we answer some of the most common and relevant questions about gynecological cancer.
What is gynecologic oncology? What is the most common type of gynecological cancer?
Gynecologic oncology is a subspecialty of gynecology, which deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of gynecological cancerHere we exclude breast cancer, which is another of the most prevalent cancers within our specialty.
Except for breast cancer, which, as we have said, is one of the most common cancers in women and is studied within another group, the most prevalent gynecological cancers in Spain would be, firstly, endometrial cancer, followed by ovarian and cervical cancer. On the other hand, we also find some less frequent ones such as vulvar, vaginal, or fallopian tube cancer.
What are the risk factors for gynecological cancer?
Among the risk factors for gynecological cancers, a distinction should be made between the different types. Of the few cancers whose cause is known, it is cervical cancer, which is caused by a virus in 98% of cases, Human papilloma virus, which is a sexually transmitted virus. It can be detected and prevented, either by taking vaginal or cervical swabs, or through primary prevention through HPV vaccination.
The cause of the rest of gynecological cancers is unknown, but Yes, there may be certain predisposing factorsFor example, endometrial cancer, which, as we've said, is one of the most common types in our area, Spain and most developed countries, has a type 1 risk factor, which includes obesity, not having had children, problems with fat and cholesterol levels, diabetes, and so on.
There are other cancers, such as ovary, which, although the cause is unknown, may have certain factors, mainly genetic or hereditary. Among them we have the hereditary familial cancers and, within these, a type of ovarian cancer, which represents less than 15% of ovarian cancers, and which can be caused by a genetic mutation. This is a fairly well-known one, BRCA gene mutation, which is also associated with the breast cancer.
Types of treatments for gynecological cancer
The development of oncology in recent years has been tremendous, mainly in the studies of molecular biology and immunotherapy. Unlike what we've had up until now in cancer treatments, especially systemic treatments such as chemotherapy, there has been a lot of improvement. Molecular biology has allowed us to do Targeted therapies, which can attack cancer without harming good cells, as with chemotherapy. The problem with chemotherapy is that it's a systemic treatment that will not only affect the tumor itself, but also healthy tissues or cells.
For its part, one of the advances in surgery in recent years has been the Minimally invasive surgery. Specifically, the laparoscopy, which has also been applied in the field of oncology, allowing us to treat many gynecological cancers with greater safety and effectiveness for patients. It reduces complications and morbidity, etc. We're talking, for example, about the detection of sentinel lymph nodes using fluorescence techniques, and even the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer, where robotic or laparoscopic surgery has been possible.
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