Cancer of the body of the uterus, or endometrial cancer, is more common than cancer of the cervix. Uterine cancer is the most common type of cancer of the reproductive organs. Cervical cancer primarily affects women before middle age; uterine cancer occurs more frequently among women beyond the menopause, with its highest rate occuring among women between the ages of 50 and 70.
Survival rate for cancer of the uterus is high, with 82 percent living 5 years after diagnosis. Risk factors for uterine cancer include obesity, diabetes, and ovarian cysts.Other potential risk are for women who have taken estrogen-only pills for menopausal symptoms and women who have taken tamoxifen for breast cancer.
Symptoms usually include bleeding between menstrual periods or after menopause, and occasionally a watery or blood-stained vaginal discharge.Most patients experience no pain in the early stages, although pain is a symptom in advanced uterine cancer or when the disease is complicated by an infection.Unfortunately,there is no simple test, like the pap smear for cervical cancer, that provides a good diagnostic clue to the presence of endometrial cancer.the pap smear does occasionally pick up cells sloughed off by the endometrium, and laboratory tests can tell if they might be malignant. The best chance for early diagnosis is for a woman to report to her gynecologist or physician any signs of abnormal bleeding between periods, or post-menopausal bleeding.
Source: The New Complete Medical and Health Encyclopedia
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