Etiology, epidemiology, risk and prognostic factors, screening, and imaging of gynecologic cancers.

ABSTRACT

This review presents some of the articles published over the past year pertaining to the etiology, epidemiology, risk and prognostic factors, screening, and imaging techniques of gynecologic cancer. The most significant advances in this period were made in the area of the genetics of gynecologic cancers and the factors that control tumor growth. New technologies are being developed in this area, which may eventually produce therapies aimed at controlling gynecologic cancers at the genetic or cellular level. Research continues for ideal screening tests for noncervical gynecologic cancers. Continuing advances were made in imaging techniques, eg, magnetic resonance imaging, which can now display very high-resolution pictures of cancers in vivo, but this technology is limited by both cost and insufficient studies proving its value.