World trends of incidence of gynecologic malignancies in young women

Abstract

Although cervical, ovarian, and uterine cancers are rare in young women, they may cause symptoms and physical disability, and the cancer treatment may also result in psychological stress, infertility, and iatrogenic menopause. While the incidence of cervical cancer appears to be decreasing, the incidences of ovarian and uterine cancers are increasing in young women. A thorough knowledge of the epidemiology of these cancers is important to help clinicians to understand the cost-effectiveness and outcomes of the screening and treatment strategies, and to help the policy makers to have a more accurate prediction of the disease load for better allocation of health resources. A more structured and detailed data collection system is needed so that the epidemiologic characteristics of these cancers can be better studied across different countries and age groups.