Endometrial cancer is a disease that causes tumor cells to appear in the endometrial tissue. This is the difference with the tumor affecting the muscular component of the uterus, which is called uterine sarcoma. Since the causes of the disease are not known, there are several recognized risk factors. Other important risk factors include first menstruation at a very young age (premature menarche), menopause at an older age (also called late menopause), diabetes, obesity, and tamoxifen treatment in women with breast cancer. The risk of developing an endometrial tumor seems to increase in all those women who are forced to follow a therapy based only on estrogen hormones, which can cause and contribute to the development of certain tumors. However, when estrogen administration is combined with other progestagens, this risk does not appear to increase further.
What are the symptoms of endometrial cancer
With this tumor, diagnosis is always particularly difficult because the symptoms are quite often late. Among the most common symptoms are bloody vaginal discharge (called metrorrhagia), which may be of various types (for example, pink, dark red and bright red). In particular, we should try to deepen the issue if such losses begin to occur after menopause, since this is the ideal age at which the tumor develops. Among the various symptoms are also vaginal discharge, usually whitish in color (they are called leucorrhea), in some cases accompanied by an unpleasant odor. Pain, in most cases, is delayed when the neoplasm affects organs inside the abdomen or in the pelvis. In the early stages, in some cases, patients may feel mild pain due to uterine distension caused by the proliferation of tumor vegetations, and the uterine contractions that this distension can reactivate.
Endometrium in menopause
Regarding endometrial cancer, it should be noted that age is the most important risk factor for developing endometrial cancer. In fact, this disease is very rarely diagnosed in people who are less than 50 years old. Quite often during menopause, a gynecologist or doctor may suggest an endometrial test. With this particular test, the actual collection of cells in the uterus is carried out in such a way that potentially dangerous situations (such as hyperplasia) or, in the case, also tumors detected at the stage of. initial stage. Cell sampling is a test that is performed without any anesthesia and, moreover, causes very little pain: in most cases, it is performed in the clinic in a few minutes. This examination is recommended when the patient suffers from persistent but irregular bleeding, both during menopause and menopause, as well as during substitution therapy. Among other tests that can be helpful in detecting ovarian cancer when it is at a particularly early stage, we of course find the following transvaginal ultrasound. This is an examination that involves inserting a probe inside the vagina, and it is certainly important to keep an eye on the condition of the genital apparatus around and, in particular, the endometrium and ovaries. This examination cannot be considered unequivocally painful, but at the same time it allows us to evaluate several important aspects, such as measuring the thickness of the endometrium, which is usually very thin during the menopause, as it is about 5 millimeters.
Endometrial adenocarcinoma g2
Endometrial cancer is also often referred to as adenocarcinoma because it originates from the glandular part. At each stage, there are different degrees of tumor severity based on the cells that make up the tumor mass. The degree of differentiation is a fundamental factor in making the right prognosis to be able to understand what treatment is most appropriate. According to the most common classification, which is called FIGO, there are essentially three grades of endometrial cancer, namely G1, G2 and G3. As is easy to understand, G1 tumors have the best prognosis. Grade G1 is an adenocarcinoma composed of a portion of glands that share many features with normal glands, but have an extremely complex structure. This degree of cancer should be distinguished from endometrial polyps, as well as from chronic inflammatory processes affecting the endometrium, but also from endometrial hyperplasia. In the grade that is defined by G2, we find a less important distinction between the tumor and healthy glands, and for this reason they are defined as atypical. In the degree, which is defined as G3, glandular tumor masses are particularly bizarre, and in some cases they cannot even be defined as such. In these cases, both hemorrhages and areas of cell death are more common: the tumor is called undifferentiated adenocarcinoma.
What are the chances of survival for endometrial cancer
The five-year survival rate of endometrial cancer patients depends strongly on several factors: among others, the involvement of the lymph nodes, the degree characterizing the tumor and its severity, the achievement or absence of myometrium, the more or less aggressive type of tumor mass, whether or not the peritoneal fluid is positive for malignant cells, the cancer size and the patient’s age should be emphasized. Generally, the five-year survival rate for patients who have undergone surgery varies depending on the stage at which the tumor is. The five-year survival rate for endometrial cancer for those at stage zero is 100%, those at stage one between 72 and 98%. Patients in the second stage have a five-year survival probability of 30-75%, while in the third stage it drops to 15-60%, to drop to 3-10% when the cancer has reached terminal stage, or the fourth.
