HEALTHCARE
Women ’ s Health Roundtable : Cancer Treatment / Diagnosis
Compiled by Miles Z . Epstein Editor , COMMERCE
Advances in diagnosing and treating cancers in women are particularly worthy of discussion during Women ’ s History Month . In the following roundtable , experts from New Jersey ’ s top hospitals highlight new technologies , pharmaceuticals and treatments that are improving the diagnosis and treatment of this disease — and saving lives .
HEALTHCARE
Atlantic Health System By Daniel Tobias , M . D ., Medical Director , Gynecological Oncology
Englewood Health By Anna Serur , M . D ., Chief , Colon and Rectal Surgery
The most common cancers women face today are breast cancer , skin cancer and colorectal cancer . In my work , I treat women who have been diagnosed with colorectal cancer , the lifetime risk for which is about 1 in 25 women . Family history of colorectal cancer or polyps , a personal history of inflammatory bowel disease and genetics play a role in determining risk level . For this reason , colon polyps , Crohn ’ s disease , ulcerative colitis and
“ Cervical cancer used to be the leading cause of death for women in the United States in the past but due to screening with pap tests , death rates from cervical cancer have decreased significantly .”
genetic conditions — such as hereditary polyposis syndromes — should be actively monitored by a gastroenterologist .
Patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer early have an excellent prognosis if they receive quick evaluation and appropriate treatment . Even when it comes to advanced-stage diagnoses , treatments have evolved so significantly that patients have a wide array of options available to them . I use minimally invasive techniques like robotic and laparoscopic surgery , which allow patients less pain , better oncological results and a quicker recovery . At Englewood Health , collaboration is just as important as technology . We use a team approach to all cancer treatment and each patient is discussed at a multidisciplinary team meeting . We find this kind of collaborative care does lead to greater outcomes for patients and that is , of course , our utmost priority .
Hackensack Meridian Health , Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center By Mark E . Borowsky , M . D ., MBA , FACOG , FACS , Medical Director , Gynecologic Oncology
The most common gynecologic cancer in the United States is endometrial cancer , which afflicts approximately 65,000 women each year . Strongly related to obesity , it ’ s also one of the only gynecologic cancers that has been increasing in frequency . Major advances have been made in the surgical treatment of this disease using robotic surgery with instruments placed in the body through incisions measuring just 8mm . Then the surgeon can guide these instruments to perform the surgery using a computer and a series of special hand and foot controls . Visualization is 3-D and enhanced by magnification ; and is not only in the visual spectrum but in the near-infrared spectrum , which means that we can see things during robotic surgery that you can ’ t otherwise see . That special vision allows us to identify the most important lymph nodes in the area , called sentinel lymph nodes to figure out if the cancer has spread , without taking out all the lymph nodes . We now offer robotically assisted surgery to almost all patients with endometrial cancer , and to patients with other gynecologic cancers . Eighty percent of patients can now have their surgery done in a minimally invasive way and most will go home the same day .
Hackensack Meridian Health , John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center By Dr . Merieme Klobocista , M . D ., Division of Gynecologic Oncology
Cervical cancer used to be the leading cause of death for women in the United States in the past but due to screening with pap tests , death rates from cervical cancer have decreased significantly . Cervical cancer continues to be a leading cause of death for women in underdeveloped countries due to lack of access to screening . It is estimated that new cases of cervical cancer in 2021 are 14,480 which comprises less than one percent of all new cancer cases and the estimated number of deaths in 2021 from cervical cancer is 4,290 , also less than 1 percent of all cancer deaths . The five-year survival
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