A 52-year-old woman had vaginal discharge for 3 months, menorrhagia lasting 20 days with abdominal pain, and the doctor diagnosed her with cancer.
On December 4, a representative of Xuyen A General Hospital said the patient was admitted to the hospital with abdominal pain and heavy vaginal bleeding. The patient said that in the past 3 months, her vagina had a lot of yellow discharge, but she thought it would go away on its own, so she didn’t go to the doctor. Recently, she had menorrhagia that lasted 20 days and had abdominal pain, so she went for a checkup.
The doctor prescribed an ultrasound of the uterus and ovaries to detect damage and tumors in the cervical area and uterine fluid retention. Biopsy results detected cervical cancer pathological stage IB2. At this stage, the tumor is larger in size but still limited to the cervix, has not metastasized far, the lesion is ≥ 5 mm deep and 2-5 cm wide.
After consultation, the doctor determined that the patient was past reproductive age, so a total hysterectomy was the best treatment option to completely eradicate the tumor.
Postoperatively, the patient is healthy, has no bleeding, can eat and live normally. According to the plan, the patient will receive adjuvant radiotherapy to remove any remaining cancer cells to prevent the disease from recurring.
The surgeon removed the entire uterus to completely destroy the tumor. Image: Hospital provided
Nearly all cervical cancer patients are infected with HPV, a common group of viruses transmitted through sexual contact, leaving no symptoms. Experts note that the HPV vaccine deployed since 2008 has helped reduce the number of women infected with the disease. However, like all vaccines, the shots are not 100% effective.
The most common symptom of cervical cancer is abnormal vaginal bleeding, such as between periods, during sex or after menopause. Other signs include pain during sex, smelly vaginal discharge, and pelvic pain.
Besides HPV, other causes of cervical cancer are age, smoking habits, use of birth control pills, pregnancy and family history of the disease.
“Most cases of cervical cancer are detected late because patients do not regularly go for regular health check-ups,” said Dr. Huynh Thi Dao – Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Xuyen A General Hospital. adding that in this case, if the tumor is not promptly detected and removed, there is a high possibility that the tumor will invade and metastasize to other parts of the body.
Dr. Dao also recommends that women pay attention to regular health checks as well as reproductive health. In particular, for married and sexually active women, experts also recommend proactively screening for cervical cancer.
Cancer screening, usually for women 25 to 64 years old, checks for changes to cervical cancer cells. If found early, doctors can treat and remove these cells before they turn into cancer. Or abnormalities can be detected early and treated promptly, increasing the success rate as well as saving costs, preserving the patient’s health and life chances.