Gynecologic Cancer: Screening, Treatment Options, and Quality-of-Life Considerations.

This issue of Cancer Control highlights cancers unique to women with emphasis on gynecologic cancers. Gynecologic cancers are diagnosed in approximately 77,000 women per year in the United States. The most common sites of gynecologic carcinomas, in order of increasing incidence, are the cervix, the ovaries, and the endometrium, all of which are profoundly affected in both the normal and malignant state by endogenous as well as exogenous female sex hormones. Estrogen generally has a proliferative effect on both benign and malignant gynecologic tissues, which suggests that patients treated for gynecologic cancer would benefit from a chronic hypoestrogenic state. However, this hypothesis does not consider the effect of the hypoestrogenic state on the rest of the body.