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Diagnosis - Staging and treatment Of Cervical Cancer
Diagnosis
Unlike some cancers, cervical cancer is slow growing and can take a long time to develop; the average is around ten years.
Early changes, which may or may not develop into cancer, appear as abnormal cells on the surface of the cervix and can be picked up by a Pap smear. If these pre-cancerous abnormalities are considered to be severe enough, they can be treated before they develop into cancer.
There are two types of cervical cancer proper, named after the type of cell they initially form in: squamous cell carcinoma, which is the most common type and forms in the cells on the surface of the cervix, and adenocarcinoma, which is less common and forms in the mucus-producing gland cells in the cervical canal.
Cervical cancer is also classed as microinvasive, which means the cancer has only superficially invaded the cervix and has not spread to other organs, or invasive, which means the cancer has spread deeper into the cervix and possibly into the vagina, surrounding lymph nodes or other tissues near the pelvic area.
If you’re experiencing any of the symptoms of cervical cancer, your doctor will perform a series of tests to determine whether you have pre-cancerous or cancerous cells on your cervix, and the severity of the abnormality.
The first such test is a colposcopy, where your doctor takes a magnified look at the surface of your cervix with what looks like a pair of binoculars on a stand.
If abnormal areas are found, your doctor may take a small piece of tissue to send to a pathologist to look at under a microscope. A biopsy is the only way to tell for sure whether the abnormal cells are pre-cancerous or cancerous.
If abnormal cells are found in your biopsy, the next step is to have a cone biopsy. This is usually done under general anaesthetic and involves removing a larger, cone shaped piece of tissue from your cervix.
This may be done to either remove the abnormal cells from the cervix completely, or to find out whether the cancer is invasive and has spread deeper into the cervix.
There are other tests your doctor might do to see whether the cancer has spread to other areas in the pelvic area. These include an extensive physical examination, magnetic resonance imaging, and a computerised tomography (CT) scan.
Staging and treatment
During the process of diagnosis, your doctor will find out how far the cancer has spread, and this will determine your treatment plan.
Stage 0 means the cancer is only in the cells of the surface of the cervix, whereas Stage I means the cancer cells have invaded deeper into the cervix. Stages II through IV indicate the cancer has spread beyond the cervix to other tissues in the pelvic area or beyond.
Treatment for cervical cancer includes surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, and the best treatment depends on the extent of the disease at the time of diagnosis.
Most women will have some form of surgery to remove abnormal cells from their cervix. This can either be a cone biopsy, which can remove very early cervical cancers, or a hysterectomy, in which the uterus is removed.
In a total hysterectomy the uterus and the cervix are removed, while in a radical hysterectomy the tissue adjacent to the cervix, some lymph nodes, the top part of the vagina and supporting ligaments are removed as well as the uterus and cervix.
For some women the treatment ends there, but what if you need more than surgery? Your doctor may recommend chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy if the cancer is more advanced and difficult to cure by surgery alone.
Both treatments have a number of side effects which include tiredness, loss of appetite, and feeling nauseous.
Our thanks to Markye Steffens ABC Health & Wellbeing for this information CLICK HERE