The upside is that most women are diagnosed when the cancer is at an early stage.
This means that for many women, endometrial cancer can be cured with surgery alone.
Get our printable guide for your next healthcare provider’s appointment to help you ask the right questions.
Verywell / Emily Roberts
With a laparoscopy, multiple small incisions are made in a woman’s abdomen.
With a laparotomy, a larger skin incision is made in the abdomen so that remove the above organs.
Again, the jot down of surgery decided upon takes into account many factors and requires careful thought.
Get our printable guide for your next healthcare provider’s appointment to help you ask the right questions.
Endometrial cancer is the most common cancer of the female reproductive system in the United States.
Lymph node removal can be done at the same time as the total abdominal hysterectomy.
However, with a vaginal hysterectomy, lymph node removal will need to be performed laparoscopically.
Radical Hysterectomy
If the cancer has spread to the cervix, a radical hysterectomy is performed.
Of course, as with many hysterectomies, the fallopian tubes and ovaries are also removed.
Generally speaking, recovery time for laparotomy is longer than laparoscopic surgery.
As with any surgery, there are risks involved, which should be discussed carefully with your healthcare provider.
Most commonly, radiation is given after surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells and prevent a recurrence.
However, for some early-stage endometrial cancers, radiation therapy may be used alone.
In this case, radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy may be the treatment of choice.
This throw in of radiation is given daily, five days per week, for five to six weeks.
A typical session is fairly quick, lasting less than thirty minutes or so.
Common short-term side effects of radiation include:
There are also potential long-term side effects of radiation therapy.
For example, extreme vaginal dryness along with vaginal scarring and narrowing can make sex painful.
Depending on the chemo drugs used to treat your endometrial cancer, there are various potential side effects.
Progestin may be given to certain premenopausal women with low-risk endometrial cancer who still want to have children.
By decreasing estrogen in the body, the growth of endometrial cancer may be slowed.
These drugs are still being investigated for their use in treating endometrial cancer.
Immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs can be used to treat some endometrial cancers by targeting these checkpoints.
Jemperli
Jemperli has been approved for certain recurrent advanced endometrial cancers that have progressed on or following prior treatment.
Be sure, though, to do so only under the guidance of your oncologist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all.
At least three doses are given, either over the course of three days or several weeks.
You may not have to wait at all.
Targeted therapy is the use of medications aimed at specific molecules in cancer cells.
It differs fromchemotherapyin that it doesn’t destroy healthy cells in the body.
They have a different side effect profile from chemotherapy, which should be discussed with your oncologist.
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