Vaginal Cancer-Symptoms and Treatment
April 2, 2010 by adarsh
Filed under Health, Womens Issues
Vaginal cancer is very rare to occur and usually affects the vaginal tissue of women. It usually affects old-aged women. Similar to other types of cancers, the vaginal cancer is also hard to notice in the initial stages. There are different types of cancers that cause vaginal cancer namely: sarcomas, squamous cell cancer, malignant melanomas and adenocarcinoma. The most common type is squamous cell cancer.
The main symptoms of vaginal cancer include: abnormal bleeding in the vagina or abnormal vaginal discharge, pelvic pain, changes in the bowel movement and urination and a vaginal mass can be felt either by the physician or by the patient itself. There can also be formation of sores on the vaginal lining and pain during sexual intercourse.
The possible risk factors include: smoking, age factors, history or cervical cancer or hysterectomy, infection of the human papillomavirus and radiation therapy in the pelvic region. It can be diagnosed by carrying out endoscopy or computerized tomography.
There are different treatment methods that can be used for the treatment of vaginal cancer, such as: Surgery, Radiotherapy, and Chemotherapy.
Surgery is a common method which involves the surgical removal of the cancerous cells. It may be done using Laser surgery where a narrow beam of light is used to destroy the cancerous cells. The vaginectomy method is another surgical process where in the vagina will be removed when the cancer has spread outside the vagina. The wide local excision is a surgical method which removes the cancerous region along with the surrounding tissues. If the cancer has spread to other regions such as uterus, ovaries and lymph nodes, the radical hysterectomy method removes all such affected parts as well.
Radiotherapy or radiation therapy involves the destruction of the cancerous cells using high energy rays such as x-rays. The X-rays are used to destroy the cancerous cells in the vaginal area. The chemotherapy process involves the use of drugs either as pills or injection to kill the cancerous cells. These methods have certain side effects such as loss of hair, nausea, vomiting and so on.
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