Gestational Trophoblastic Disease Statistics
Some people use statistics to try to figure out their own chances of getting cancer or being cured. Statistics, though, don’t work that way. They show what happens with large groups of people. No two individuals, though, are alike. So statistics can’t be used to say what will happen to just one person.
Here are some 2008 statistics about GTD. They come from the American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org):
- Hydatiform moles occur in about 1 out of 1,000 pregnancies. That’s for both the U.S. and Europe.
- Fifteen percent of molar pregnancies progress to an “invasive mole.”
- Hydatidiform moles progress directly to choriocarcinoma 2% to 4% of the time. One out of every four choriocarcinomas, though, develops from normal pregnancy failures. That could be a miscarriage, abortion, or tubal pregnancy. Another one out of every four will develop after a normal pregnancy and delivery.
- Choriocarcinoma is very rare. It occurs in 1 out of 40,000 pregnancies in the U.S. It is more common in some Asian and African countries.
All hydatiform moles can be cured. Also, nearly every woman with GTD who does not have certain complicating factors has a good prognosis. That means their chances of survival are very good.
