Gynecologic Cancer: What Every Woman Should Know
Over 80,000 Women Newly Diagnosed Every Year
Updated on: June 19, 2003
In the last year, we’ve all heard and read a great deal about potential threats to our health and survival — new threats like SARS and old threats like smallpox.
What has not received as much media coverage is the persistent threat posed to women by gynecologic cancers. Nonetheless, that threat is deadly and the statistics often stunning to those unfamiliar with them. Consider the following:
- Every 6.4 minutes, over 80,000 times per year, a woman in the United States is diagnosed with a gynecologic cancer.
- Although the majority of women diagnosed with these cancers will survive their diagnoses for years, some even decades, sadly, many will not. In the last five years alone, approximately 130,000 women in this country have died as a result of their diagnoses with a gynecologic cancer.
- This year, an estimated 26,000 women in the United States are expected to lose their lives to some form of gynecologic cancer.
"Early detection and appropriate treatment of gynecologic cancers are key in lowering this tragic death toll," said gynecologic oncologist Bobbie Gostout, M.D., communications chairperson for the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation (GCF) and assistant professor, Department of Gynecologic Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "When diagnosed at their earliest stages, gynecologic cancers – including ovarian, endometrial, and cervical cancer – offer excellent prognoses for long term survival. There are scores of women diagnosed in the early stages of their cancers who have gone on to live 10, 20, some even 25 or more years."
"Unfortunately," noted Dr. Gostout, "a significant percentage of women diagnosed with these cancers are diagnosed in the advanced stages of their diseases, when five-year survival rates are far lower."
Although there is no single cause for these late stage diagnoses, Dr. Gostout says a lack of knowledge by the public regarding risk factors, symptoms, and diagnostic tools available to screen for these cancers is a contributing factor, in many cases.
"The level of public education and awareness about gynecologic cancers has been inadequate until now," said Dr. Gostout. "Although public education efforts and media coverage regarding breast cancer screening has made women keenly aware of the importance of mammograms and self-breast examination, the same cannot be said for gynecologic cancer. Far too many patients my fellow gynecologic oncologists and I encounter say they did not know the warning signs or symptoms of various gynecologic cancers until after they were diagnosed with one of these cancers. Many didn’t learn— until they or a family member were diagnosed—that they possessed one or more known risk factors that elevated their risk above that of the general population. Still others thought they had nothing to worry about if their most recent Pap smear results were normal. They assumed the Pap smear screened for all gynecologic cancers when, in fact, it only reliably screens for cervical cancer."
These and other dangerous gaps in information about gynecologic cancers are precisely what this supplement is designed to address.
Sponsored by the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation and funded by a generous educational grant from Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the supplement features gynecologic oncologists, the physicians specially trained to treat gynecologic cancers, discussing the latest information regarding risk factors, symptoms, diagnostic screening tools and treatment options for the most common gynecologic cancers.
According to Dr. Gostout, "The GCF was founded on the premise that providing women up-to-date information about gynecologic cancer would empower them to take appropriate steps to reduce their risks for these diseases and to seek early and effective intervention, if suspicious symptoms ever arose. This supplement is a manifestation of that founding principle."
As the editor of this project and the sister of a woman — a wonderful woman — who lost her life to a gynecologic cancer, I implore you to read this supplement and share it with other women you cherish. You are likely to encounter information that is new to you, information that may one day help save your life — or the life of a woman you love.
Sheryl Silver,
Supplement Editor
This article by the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation originally appeared in an advertising supplement to the New York Times on Sunday, June 22, 2003.
GCF gratefully acknowledges Aventis Oncology for its generous support of this educational supplement. The content of this supplement is the work of many individuals and does not reflect commercial interests.
Aventis Pharmaceuticals
www.AventisOncology.com