Gynecologic oncology

There are now diagnostic and surgical technologies available for specialists in the field of gynecologic oncology that allow early detection of tumor diseases. Thanks to this, a significant percentage of cancer patients can be cured, most of them can live a full life and some of them may also have a child after recovery.

The most typical disease types:

• cancer of the body of the uterus (mostly occurs above the age of 60)
• cervical cancer (constitutes 30 percent of gynecological tumors)
• ovarian cancer (common in the age group of 55-65 years, and occurs usually in an advanced stage)

As the first step of treatment, the patient’s previous diseases and life style is mapped during the gynecological examination and in addition to traditional manual and histological examinations, imaging diagnostic tools may also be involved (such as x-ray, vaginal ultrasound as well as MRI or PET/CT scan for stage determination and detection of any potential metastases).

If surgical intervention becomes inevitable, then beside the appropriate specialist background and institute, it is also very important to perform the intervention as soon as possible, since the first operation usually determines the patient’s chances for healing.

The most important aim of hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) is to reach a tumor-free state and for this end, often other organs (e.g. ovarium, mesenterium, lymph nodes, spleen, gut segment) must also be removed. Following the surgery, other supplementary treatments may be necessary based on the histological results (e.g. chemotherapy, or more rarely, radiation therapy).

In the non-operative stage of diseases, the specialist team typically leans on chemotherapy and radiation therapy.