Prevention, Screening, Treatment and Follow-Up of Gynecological Cancers: State of Art and Future Perspectives

Objective: This study aims to analyze the available data on prevention and early diagnosis in gynecological cancers. Mechanism: A comprehensive search was performed in the PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, SCOPUS and Web of Science databases. Findings in Brief: To date the prevention programmes of all degrees exist exclusively for cervical cancer. Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination prevents from infection and development of precancerous lesions and contributes significantly to the deflection of the incidence of cervical cancer. Screening for HPV-related lesions is worldwide performed by cervical smear (Pap-test) and HPV test. Finally, tertiary prevention is aimed at the treatment of previously diagnosticated lesions with the aid of surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. Unfortunately, to date the prevention programmes of other gynecological tumors have not reached a good performance; indeed, the primum movens that leads to the development of such neoplasms has not been identified yet. Actually, no screening programs for the early diagnosis of endometrial cancer are available, however, it is recommended the adoption of a healthy lifestyle and a balanced diet. Diagnostic biomarkers would be helpful for screening asymptomatic high-risk women, but histopatological examinations remain the gold standard for diagnosis of endometrial cancer. Similarly, there are no screening tests for the diagnosis of ovarian cancer. In recent years many steps forward have been made in this field and new perspectives have been presented, however, additional investigation is needed to optimize the duration and timing of treatment, examine its cost-effectiveness, and identify potential tumor or host biologic factors predictive of the efficacy and adverse events. Finally, there are no primary and secondary prevention for vulvar cancer so patients should be invited to self-examination and pay attention to the presence of symptoms. Conclusions: Are the available screening programs for the diagnosis of gynecological carcinomas sufficient? The prevention and the diagnosis of precancerous lesions is the goal to be achieved for all gynecological cancers in order to improve patient outcomes, reduce the costs for managing the disease and prolonged follow up.

Automated summary

Currently, prevention programs for gynecological cancers focus mainly on cervical cancer, while other tumors lack effective prevention measures. HPV vaccination and screening methods are widely used for cervical cancer. Endometrial and ovarian cancers lack screening programs for early diagnosis, while vulvar cancer has no primary or secondary prevention measures, prompting the need for self-examination by patients.