[Clinical aspects of genital cancer in women]

The clinical significance of cancer frequency, tumor status, and age at the time of cancer detection, was evaluated from 1957 to 1980 in women treated at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Tuebingen University for ovarian, endometrial and cervical cancer. From the presented data the following conclusions can be drawn: The data emphasize the value of epidemiologic studies in gynaecologic oncology. It is not sufficient to consider the frequency of cancer detection, since the clinical significance is determined not so much by the number of diseased women, but rather by the stage of cancer spread and age of the patients at the time of cancer diagnosis. The most important change among the genital cancers of women appears to be the absolute and relative increase in pre-invasive and invasive lesions of the cervix in young women. No change or increase in the prognostically unfavourable cases of stages III and IV of cervical and ovarian cancers.