What tests help diagnose endometrial (uterine) cancer?
There are a few different tests doctors rely on to help diagnose endometrial (uterine) cancer, which are separate from a pap smear. In this video, OB/GYN specialist Lauren Streicher, MD, describes the various screening methods available to women.
Transcript
There's no cutting. There's no needles. It takes about ten seconds, and while some women do experience a little cramping, it's really
quite mild and tolerable. [MUSIC PLAYING]
When a woman comes to me who's concerned about uterine cancer or if I'm concerned because she's having abnormal bleeding, the number-one thing that I want to do
is to take a sample of the tissue from the lining of her uterus. Now, a lot of people think, when they come in for their annual exam, that a pap smear
is going to determine if they have uterine cancer, but in fact, that's not the case. A pap smear is just to detect cervical cancer.
The only way that I can check the cells in the lining of the uterus is to actually get a sample of those cells, and it's easier than it sounds.
Essentially, I put a speculum in, just like for a pap smear, and I pass a very thin, little flexible catheter through the opening of the cervix into the uterine cavity.
and then I aspirate a few cells. There's no cutting. There's no needles. It takes about ten seconds, and while some women
do experience a little cramping, it's really quite mild and tolerable. I send those cells off to the pathologist,
and they're able to tell me, are there abnormal cells there? Are there precancerous cells? Or is there an actual cancer?
Now, sometimes we don't get an adequate amount of cells, and we don't get an answer from doing an endometrial biopsy.
And then we do a full D&C. And women have heard of D&Cs, but they're not quite sure what it is. Essentially, the D stands for dilate.
We open up the cervix a little bit, and the C stands for curettage, where we scrape out the lining of the uterus in order
to get a larger amount of cells. And at the same time, we do hysteroscopy, where we put a little scope through the cervix
so I can actually see what I'm doing and make sure that I'm not missing any areas. So that's the definitive way to diagnose endometrial cancer.
A lot of times, though, we'll start out with an ultrasound just to measure the lining of the uterus to see if it's thick,
cancer
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