Gynecologic cancers

Abstract

Office visits centering on preventive and gynecologic concerns compose a significant proportion of any primary care practice. The detection and prevention of gynecologic cancers are topics that often predominate such visits. The trend of increasing obesity in the general population and the exploding public awareness of the prevalence of human papillomavirus are examples of topics that affect the primary care physician's approach toward gynecologic cancer screening for women. Changing incidence rates in endometrial cancer and cervical cancer challenge the traditional approach to screening, guiding the primary care physician to consider individual risk factors during the routine health maintenance examination. In this article, the epidemiology, screening guidelines, and a review of management are presented for vulvar, cervical, ovarian, and endometrial cancer.