Cervical cancer (CC) will become with time a rare disease, since a vaccine has already been found for its cause that must be used before the onset of sexual activity, that is, before a possible infection with human papillomavirus. In the meantime, the disease can be detected at an early stage under one condition, undergoing regular gynecological examinations.
Cervical cancer stages
The stage is established prior to start of treatment during clinical and standard examination with radiography, any endoscopy, curettage and other necessary gynecological interventions. Findings of
- Stage I has several gradations from a microscopically detected tumor to a visually detectable formation exceeding 4 cm, the main thing here is that the lesion has not yet emerged from the cervix;
- Stage II signals that the cancer has left the uterus, but without affecting the pelvic tissue, the vagina is free only in the lower part, and the formation size may be different;
- Stage III informs about cancer infiltration into the pelvis, the tumor has completely occupied the vagina or disrupted the urine flow through the compressed ureter, causing the renal pelvis to swell, and the kidney function is reduced if not completely blocked;
- Stage IV has two options, one being involvement of the urinary bladder or rectum into the conglomerate, and the other being already existing distant metastases.
Treatment of dysplasia and early cervical cancer
Severe CIN III dysplasia and the most initial cancer in situ, when the cells not only haven’t yet penetrated into other cervical layers, but have not even overcome the basement membrane of the mucosal lining, togerther with microinvasive carcinoma that has penetrated no deeper than 7 millimeters and the neoplasm I stage are treated the same and only way, surgically.
The organ is preserved as much as possible, and a conical piece of tissue is «cut out», the central part of which becomes the cervical canal. The excision process is called cervix conization; in the future, it does not exclude the possibility of carrying a pregnancy. For women who are not planning childbirth or have incurable gynecological conditions, the extirpation (uterus removal) is recommended.
In certain cases, conization is performed twice due to discovery of cancer cells in the margin of a previously excised piece. If malignant cells are found inside the vessels of the tissue removed, the question is raised about removing the entire uterus to reduce the risk of spreading metastases.
Cervical cancer causes
The cause of the disease is human papillomavirus (HPV) infection which leads to precancerous processes of the vaginal part of the cervix. Not all HPVs, and there are dozens of their types known, but only types 11, 16, and 18 can lead to cancer.
In itself, infection without mucosal pathology does not lead to a malignant tumor, the virus that resides free in mucous membrane cells is not dangerous, having lived for some time, it will disappear along with the cell that «sheltered» it. Over three years, almost half of the damaged cells die, but every fifth infected woman develops a cervical pathology — dysplasia or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN).
The main starting point that leads to the transformation of a normal cell into a pathological one is virus insertion into the cell’s genome. The symbiosis of cellular and viral genomes leads to the loss of the normal structure, the nuclei enlarge and change their shape, the reproduction process is accelerated, the life of cells is reduced and their function changes. With the accumulation atypia, that is, immaturity signs, a transformation into cancer occurs.
Cervical dysplasia
Dysplasia is the appearance of defective cells in the mucous membrane that are unable to perform a protective function. Changes are localized in the transition zone of one type of multilayer epithelium cells into another cell type, which lies only in one layer.
Cervical dysplasia is a precancerous change of the mucous membrane, which with further development runs the risk of becoming a
Malignization does not occur in 100% of cases, however, the likelihood of such transformation is quite high. With a light degree I, 6 out of 10 women can
In the absence of drugs effective for HPV, however, intraepithelial neoplasia can be successfully treated. Severe CIN III is subject to surgical removal. Young women planning a pregnancy undergo an
Cervical cancer (CC) will become with time a rare disease, since a vaccine has already been found for its cause that must be used before the onset of sexual activity, that is, before a possible infection with human papillomavirus. In the meantime, the disease can be detected at an early stage under one condition, undergoing regular gynecological examinations.
Cervical cancer diagnostics is divided into several successive stages starting with a routine gynecological examination and continuing in a small operating and diagnostic rooms, where the spread of the process is determined. The goal is to choose the best cancer treatment.