Endometrial (uterine) cancer

What is endometrial cancer?
Endometrial cancer begins in the endometrium, the inner lining of the uterus (womb). The picture below shows where the uterus removed.



About the uterus and endometrium

The uterus is a hollow body, which is normally about the size and shape of a medium sized bulb. The uterus is where a fetus grows and develops when a woman is pregnant. The uterus has 2 main parts (see picture below):

The cervix of the uterus, the lower end extending into the vagina.
The upper part of the uterus is called the body or corpus. (Corpus is the Latin word for body.)
Even if the cervix is ​​technically part of the uterus, when people talk about cancer of the uterus, they usually mean the body, not the cervix.



The body of the uterus has 2 main layers. The inner layer or lining is called the endometrium. Known, the outer layer of the muscle as the myometrium. This thick layer of muscle is needed to push out the baby during birth. The coating of the outside of the uterine tissue is the serosa.

During the female menstrual cycle, hormones cause the endometrium to change. During the first half of the cycle, before the ovaries an egg (ovulation), the ovaries produce hormones called estrogens. Estrogen causes the uterine lining to thicken, making it to nourish an embryo if pregnancy occurs. If it has produced no pregnancy, estrogen in a small amount and the hormone progesterone after ovulation. This prepares the innermost layer of the lining to shed. By the end of the cycle, the endometrium is shed from the uterus and menstruation (period). This cycle repeats itself until the woman goes through the menopause (menopause).

Cancer of the uterus and endometrium

The 2 main types of cancer of the uterus, are:

Uterine sarcomas, the start of the uterus in the muscular layer (myometrium) or supportive tissue. These include uterine leiomyosarcoma and endometrial stromal sarcomas. These cancers are not covered here, but are described in detail in the uterine sarcomas discussed.
Endometrial carcinomas, which in the cells of the inner lining of the uterus (the endometrium). Almost all cancers of the uterus are this type. These cancers are the focus of the rest of this information.
Endometrial can be divided into several types, depending on how the cells look under a microscope (histologic types). This includes:

Adenocarcinoma, (most endometrial cancers are adenocarcinomas)
Carcinosarcoma (more below)
Squamous
Undifferentiated carcinoma
Small cell carcinoma
Transitional carcinoma
The most common type known as endometrioid adenocarcinoma cancer. Endometrioid cancers consist of cells in glands that are similar to the normal uterine lining (endometrium) made her look. Some of these cancers include squamous cells (squamous cells are flat, thin cells that can be found on the outer surface of the cervix), and glandular cells. A cancer with both types of cells is called an adenocarcinoma with squamous differentiation. If, under the microscope, the glandular cells look cancer but the squamous cells do not, the tumor can be called a adenoacanthoma. If both the squamous cells and glandular cells look malignant (cancerous), these tumors adenosquamous (or mixed cell) carcinomas are called. There are other variants (or subtypes) endometrioid cancers, such as secretory carcinoma, ciliated carcinoma and adenocarcinoma villoglandular.

Clear-cell carcinoma, mucinous adenocarcinoma and papillary serous adenocarcinoma. are rare types of endometrial adenocarcinomas. These types are more aggressive than most endometrial cancers generally. They tend to grow quickly, and often spread outside the uterus at the time of diagnosis.

Classification endometrial

Doctors sometimes classify endometrial based on their perspectives and the underlying causes.

The grade of endometrial cancer is, how much the cancer forms glands that look is based found similar in normal healthy endometrium. In low-grade cancers, more of the cancerous tissue forming glands. In more significant cancers, more of the cancer cells in a random or arranged so disorganized and not form glands.

Grade 1 tumors have 95% or more of the cancerous tissue forming glands.
Grade 2 tumors between 50% and 94% of the cancerous tissue forming glands.
Grade 3 tumors have less than half of the forming gland cancer tissue. Grade 3 cancers are "high-grade" means. They tend to be aggressive and have a poorer outlook than lower grade cancers (grades 1 and 2).
Type 1 endometrial cancers are thought to be caused by excess estrogen. Sometimes they develop from atypical hyperplasia, an abnormal overgrowth of cells in the endometrium (see section Factors Risk). Type 1 cancers are usually not very aggressive and are slow to other tissues. Grades 1 and 2 endometrioid cancers are "Type 1" endometrial cancers.

Type 2 endometrial form a small number of endometrial cancers. Experts are not sure what causes type 2 cancers, but they do not seem to be caused by too much estrogen. Type 2 cancers include all endometrial carcinomas, which are not of type 1, papillary serous carcinoma such as, clear cell carcinoma, undifferentiated carcinoma, and endometrioid carcinoma grade 3. These cancers do not look at all like normal endometrium and so are "poorly differentiated" or "high-grade". Since type 2 tumors are more likely to grow and spread outside the uterus, a poorer outlook (than type 1 they have cancer). Doctors tend to treat these cancers more aggressive.

Uterine carcinosarcoma (CS) starts in the endometrium and has features of both endometrial carcinoma and sarcoma. In the past, CS was considered a type of uterine sarcoma, but doctors now believe that CS is a cancer that is abnormal and so no longer looks much like the cells (poorly differentiated) came.

Uterine CS is considered a type 2 endometrial cancer. CS tumors known as malignant tumors or malignant mixed mesodermal mixed tumors Müller (MMMTs). They make up about 4% of uterine cancer.