Uterine Cancer

The term uterine cancer may refer to any of several different types of cancer which occur in the uterus, namely:

  • Uterine sarcomas: sarcomas of the myometrium, or muscular layer of the uterus, are most commonly leiomyosarcomas.
  • Endometrial cancer:
  • Endometrial carcinomas originate from cells in the glands of the endometrium (uterine lining). These include the common and readily treatable well-differentiated endometrioid adenocarcinoma, as well as the more aggressive uterine papillary serous carcinoma and uterine clear-cell carcinoma.
  • Endometrial stromal sarcomas originate from the connective tissues of the endometrium, and are far less common than endometrial carcinomas.
  • Malignant mixed Müllerian tumors are rare endometrial tumors which show both glandular (carcinomatous) and stromal (sarcomatous) differentiation – carcinosarcoma behaves similar to a high grade carcinoma, and it is felt to be of epithelial origin rather than true sarcoma.
  • Cervical cancer arises from the transformation zone of the cervix, the lower portion of the uterus and connects to the upper aspect of the vagina.
  • Gestational trophoblastic disease relates to neoplastic processes originating from tissue of a pregnancy that often is located in the uterus.

Famous quotes containing the words uterine and/or cancer:

    “It is not menstrual blood per se which disturbs the imagination—unstanchable as that red flood may be—but rather the albumen in the blood, the uterine shreds, placental jellyfish of the female sea. This is the chthonian matrix from which we rose. We have an evolutionary revulsion from slime, our site of biologic origins. Every month, it is woman’s fate to face the abyss of time and being, the abyss which is herself.”
    —Camille Paglia (b. 1947)

    “Ever since I was a kid my folks fed me bigotry for breakfast and ignorance for supper. Never, not once did they ever make me feel proud of where I was born. That’s it. That was a cancer they put in me. No knowledge of my country. No pride. Just a hymn of hate.”
    —Samuel Fuller (b. 1911)