Cervical Cancer

This book provides readers with a thorough review on cervical cancer, treatment guidelines and emerging therapies available for the disease. It reviews the epidemiology clinical features, diagnosis, and medical management of cervical cancer. Given the increasing need for preventive strategies, treatment optimization with collaborative and integrative work, this book improves the actual and integral knowledge in this neoplasm. Given the high prevalence of this disease in Latin America, this is an important text for clinicians in this region. This book outlines the state of the art in cervical cancer treatments and is an indispensable companion for oncologists, gynecologists, surgeons and medical students.

Most women who die from cervical cancer, particularly in developing countries, are in the prime of their life. They may be raising children, caring for their family, and contributing to the social and economic life of their town or village. Their death is both a personal tragedy, and a sad and unnecessary loss to their family and their community. Unnecessary, because there is compelling evidence, as this Guide makes clear, that cervical cancer is one of the most preventable and treatable forms of cancer, as long as it is detected early and managed effectively. Unfortunately, the majority of women in developing countries still do not have access to cervical cancer prevention programmes. The consequence is that, often, cervical cancer is not detected until it is too late to be cured. An urgent effort is required if this situation is to be corrected. This Guide is intended to help those responsible for providing services aimed at reducing the burden posed by cervical cancer for women, communities and health systems. It focuses on the knowledge and skills needed by health care providers, at different levels of care.

Written with the busy practice in mind, this book delivers clinically focused, evidence-based gynecology guidance in a quick-reference format. It explores etiology, screening, tests, diagnosis, and treatment for a full range of gynecologic health issues. The coverage includes the full range of gynecologic malignancies, reproductive endocrinology and infertility, infectious diseases, urogynecologic problems, gynecologic concerns in children and adolescents, and surgical interventions including minimally invasive surgical procedures. Information is easy to find and absorb owing to the extensive use of full-color diagrams, algorithms, and illustrations. The new edition has been expanded to include aspects of gynecology important in international and resource-poor settings.

Cervical cancer is a malignancy of the cervix. World-wide, it is the second most common cancer of women. It may be present with vaginal bleeding but symptoms may be absent until the cancer is in advanced stages, which has made cervical cancer the focus of intense screening efforts. Most scientific studies point to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection responsible for 90% of the cases of cervical cancer. There are 7 most common types of HPV - 16, 18, 31, 33, 42, 52 and 58. Types 16 and 18 being the most common cause of the cancer. Treatment is with surgery (including local exicision) in early stages and chemotherapy and radiotherapy in advanced stages of the disease. This book presents cutting edge research in this field. This involves, programs for cancer screening, alternative approaches to cervical cancer prevention, HPV/Co-Infections and Host Genetic Profiles, Small Cell Carcinoma of the Uterine Cervix, Indicators of HPV-induced carcinogenesis, functional genomics as a tool for understanding cervical cancer, histone deacetylase inhibitors, Chinese women and cervical cancer and cervical cancer in Northeastern Thailand.

This is a comprehensive guide to cervical cancer for nurses. It is a practically-based text for clinical nurses who wish to consolidate and update their knowledge of cervical cancer. It is concise, containing comprehensive information for general practice together with useful references to facilitate more in-depth study. Thus it provides an invaluable resource for both the registered nurse with a general interest in cervical cancer and for the nurse specialist working in primary health, gynaecology, oncology and palliative care. As well as containing the essential chapters about the pathophysiology and treatment of cervical abnormalities and cervical cancer, the book also addresses specific nursing issues such as sexuality, fertility, and symptom control. Moreover it examines the bigger, global picture of the disease. Full appreciation of global impact of cervical cancer on women involves an appreciation of the social, political and public health aspects of the disease – not only in the developed world but also in developing countries.

This book is meant to provide a complete overview of the research of HPV and its connection to cervical cancer.

Globally, cervical cancer is the second leading cause of death for women with cancer. This is a tragedy in part because cervical cancer affects women usually a decade sooner than other cancers when those women are in their reproductive years and in the prime years in the labour force. While screening with the Pap test or other more recently evaluated tests have resulted in low cervical cancer rates in high resource countries, the lack of screening options in low resource countries means that many women present with symptoms reflective of advanced disease and so the chance of survival is low even with aggressive treatment. In this book, we have an international spectrum of authors from both high and low resource settings. We review the risk factors that lead to cervical cancer. We discuss novel screening techniques including HPV testing. We present the capacity for HPV vaccines to markedly reduce cervical cancer rates. Planning and implementing an organised cervical screening program and the assessment of quality indicators as a means of evaluation is outlined. In this book, we discuss novel operative options in early stage invasive cervical cancer as a means of preserving fertility. Also, we discuss the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy as a means of down staging the disease. The role of surgically staging women to define more advanced disease is outlined including options for management of metastatic and/or recurrent disease with chemotherapy and targeted therapies. The special situation of women found to be pregnant during the diagnosis of pre-invasive or invasive cervical cancer; and the diagnosis and management principles are reviewed. Just as poliomyelitis has almost been eliminated in the lifetime of one generation, we look forward to the elimination of oncogenic HPV and its deadly ramifications particularly for women exposed to this virus.

“HPV and Cancer” is a concise read that covers all aspects of the Human Papilloma Virus as it relates to human cancers. While written by professionals, it design to be understandable by those that are not in the field, yet it has the technical details that professionals want to stay abreast of this changing field. The book starts out the history of HPV and progresses into the molecular biology of the virus and our current understand of the structure and functions of the proteins and genes it encodes. We then look at the dynamic trends of this infectious agent in the human population, how it interacts with human cells, and the role it plays with other organisms to produce both benign and malignant tumors. Lastly, there is a discussion about a new vaccine for HPV and the hopes that are held by many to change the trends with this virus and the associated cancers it produces.