RECOGNITION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE WOMAN PREDISPOSED TO UTERINE ADENOCARCINOMA

Abstract

Evidence is accumulating to suggest that periodic physical examinations often enable the physician to find malignant disease at an early curable stage. At least this relatively simple expedient suffices when carcinoma begins on a surface that can be visualized or palpated by the examining finger. On the other hand, cancer developing at a hidden, inaccessible site offers little opportunity for an early diagnosis. Here the utilization of various diagnostic aids provides the clinician with means of detecting an early growth. However, it is usually regarded as unpractical to employ such procedures as gastroscopy or. the taking of an encephalogram in the same routine manner as one might advocate an annual physical examination. The incidence of malignant disease at any given site is usually so low as to yield disarmingly negative results when patients are subjected to purely routine gastrointestinal x-ray examinations, cystoscopy or uterine curettage. Yet if we wait until