Gynecologic Oncology
Clinical discussions on gynecologic malignancies, surgical approaches, and multimodal treatment strategies.
Recent Discussions
What measures should we take regarding routine follow-up visits for well patients in surveillance during the coronavirus pandemic?
3-6 months.
How do you approach and manage anorexia and appetite loss in people with advanced cancer?
Anorexia/cachexia is often distressing to patients and families and it is this distress that is the target of many of the interventions for this syndrome as there are, in general, no effective therapies. Patients and families are routinely battling over the lack of eating as this causes further disc...
For patients with cervical cancer who otherwise meet criteria for a simple hysterectomy based off SHAPE or GOG-0278 criteria, do you require negative margins on the excisional biopsy specimen to offer simple hysterectomy?
The choice to offer a simple hysterectomy to patients with early-stage cervical cancer is complex. SHAPE did not require negative margins on an excisional biopsy, but there were other key inclusion criteria that I think should be strictly followed if considering a simple hysterectomy. The lesion mus...
Which endometrial cancers do you choose to send POLE testing on, assuming you cannot check it on everyone?
This is a great question for two main reasons: Resource utilization What am I going to do with the data I would choose to send POLE testing on patients where you think the data might impact your care... the challenge with that is that we lack strong prospective data to support de-escalation. With th...
Are maintenance therapies for ovarian cancer being held at your institution due to COVID-19?
Patient safety and health care worker safety are of the upmost importance for us. We are doing telehealth visits and able to deliver oral drugs to patient's homes. For infusion visits, those are being decided on a case by case basis, depending on the patient and their disease status.
What is your approach to an incidental diagnosis of low risk endometrial cancer in a patient who underwent minimally invasive hysterectomy with uterine morcellation with gross intra-operative tumor spillage?
Little guidance is available in the literature on the optimal management of a patient with a low grade endometrial cancer who had a minimally invasive procedure with uterine morcellation and gross tumor spillage. Fortunately, this situation is not common. Wright et al. estimated the risk of occult m...
How do you manage moist desquamation when treating vulvar cancer?
My experience is largely limited to the treatment of gynecologic malignancies, with the treatment of vulvar lesions the most common reason for development of moist desquamation. The first goal, in my opinion, is to prevent development of moist desquamation as much as possible. Skin folds that are no...
Would you recommend adjuvant chemotherapy for a patient with serous endometrial cancer initially treated with neoadjuvant radiation due to cervical involvement precluding surgical resection who is now s/p hysterectomy/BSO/LND/omentectomy with only small amount of residual disease confined to the endometrium?
Yes, assuming adequate performance status and no contraindications, I would recommend adjuvant postoperative chemotherapy for any patient requiring neoadjuvant treatment with uterine serous carcinoma that has any residual disease found at the time of hysterectomy.For the patient in this case, she in...
What is your approach to IV fluid management for the treatment of hypercalcemia of malignancy?
At this point, I believe one can use either saline or lactated Ringer's. There is some evidence that low-chloride-containing solutions have advantages in general, which may well be the case, but we need more data on that. The amount of calcium in LR is very small and should not make a difference (1....
For a BRCA1+ patient with a history of stage IVB endometrioid ovarian carcinoma s/p upfront surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy who has now completed 3 years of maintenance niraparib and is NED, how would you counsel about discontinuing vs continuing PARPi therapy?
Recommendation: I recommend that this patient with Stage IVB ovarian cancer, with a complete response to surgery, chemotherapy, and 3 years of maintenance PARPi, be counseled to discontinue niraparib.Background:The duration of therapy for primary maintenance PARPi should be tailored based on the ass...