Recent advances in the management of gestational trophoblastic disease

What was once an almost uniformly fatal disease has now become highly curable, with survival rates of 100% being reported for the early stages of the disease. This is the direct result of improved techniques of diagnosis, recognition of high risk groups, effective and intensive chemotherapy, adjunctive surgery in selected cases and most important of all, a close follow-up of all patients with monitoring of the tumour marker, human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). This review will highlight the advances made in these areas and how these have helped in reducing morbidity and mortality from gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD).