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Endometrial cancer is formed in the mucous membrane of the womb, known as endometrium. It is the Fourth most common cancer of women in the United States and influences 1 in 50 women.
The good news? Doctors have many tools to treat endometrial cancer that work well, especially when cancer is detected early. More than 80% of women who get a diagnosis of endometrial cancer They live five years later And the figure rises to 95% if the cancer has not spread outside the womb.
Insight into the therapeutic options of endometrial cancer, including operations, radiation and medicines, can be useful to prepare for what is approaching. We spoke Nita Lee, MDattached professor in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago, about how endometrial cancer is treated
What types of operations are used for endometrial cancer?
Currently, the most common type of laparoscopic and robot surgery that is at least invasive (it is performed by small incisions). We use this type of surgery for most patients with endometrial cancer to remove the uterus and fallopian tubes and to collect information from lymph nodes.
If patients have a more advanced condition that has spread to lymph nodes or ovaries, or if the uterus is too large to perform at least invasive surgery, open abdominal surgery may be needed.
What role does radiotherapy play in the treatment of endometrial cancer?
Radiotherapy is used more often as additional treatment after operations. Care after operations, called postoperative care, can sometimes imply radiotherapy, depending on specific findings made during the operation.
For example, if a person has certain risk factors in the womb, his medical care provider (HCP) could recommend that he undergoes vaginal radiation or perhaps more complex pelvic radiation. Or if you have certain risk factors, such as that cancer in the cervix is detected after you have removed it surgically, radiation may be needed in the pelvic area.
Some patients with more advanced disorders need radiation to lymph nodes and chemotherapy. Occasionally, patients who are not eligible for operations and no treatments with fertility retention will only receive radiation, but that is unusual. It really depends on the patient.
Which systemic treatments (of the entire body) are used for endometrial cancer?
- Chemotherapy is the basis of the treatment of patients who receive diagnoses in advanced stages. For example, if we detect during the operation that a person has stage 3 or 4 cancer, chemotherapy often gets as part of their postoperative therapeutic plan.
People with this stage 1 disorder that have certain types of high -risk cells also receive chemotherapy after surgery.
- The Immunotherapy It is a new treatment. It is similar to chemotherapy because the drug is administered intravenously, but immunotherapy medication has other effects on the body.
Although chemotherapy medicines often have an effect on cancer cells, immunotherapy is designed to help the body’s immune system fall to cancer.
One of the ways in which cancer cells survive your immune system hides behind certain proteins or produces such proteins so that your body does not recognize that cancer cells are harmful. Immunotherapy facilitates the detection of cancer.
Immunotherapy works optimally for certain categories of endometrial cancer, which means that it works better for certain people than for others. This has changed the rules of the game for patients with recurring endometrial cancer, as well as for people who receive diagnoses in advanced phases.
- The hormonal terpia It is used for endometrial cancers with estrogenic or stagnant receptors, which means that cancer cells contain estrogen or progesterone receptors. We manipulate these receptors with hormones to treat cancer.
- The Targeted therapy Eliminates cancer cells without damaging other cells. Probably the best known objective is HER2 protein, a protein that is often mentioned when we talk about breast cancer.
Research Recently a connection has demonstrated between endometrial cancer and HER2 protein and targeted therapies can be useful.
Are treatments with fertility retention available for endometrial cancer?
Yes. Hormonal therapy is the most common treatment for patients who are concerned about their fertility. We usually tend to limit treatments with fertility preservation for patients whose diagnosis of stage 1 of that condition was diagnosed and for people with a low risk -dometrial cancer (compared to people with types of high -risk cells).
Which factors are considered when therapeutic decisions are made?
Many of our therapeutic decisions are made on the basis of the patient’s molecular profile, that the biomarkers and tumor cells analyze and indicate exactly what type of endometrial cancer the patient has and whether certain treatments will have effects on the tumor. We also analyze any other medical problem that the patient and her therapeutic goals can have and we always take the quality of life into account.
This educational source is prepared with the support of Karyopharm and Merck.
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