[Early diagnosis of endometrial cancer]

The increasing morbidity rate of endometrial carcinoma has prompted the development of methods of examination suitable for the detection of asymptomatic carcinoma of the endometrium. Commercially available instruments for collection of specimens from the uterine cavity employ washing, aspiration or curettage techniques. Under clinical testing conditions, these instruments have been shown to have a high cytomorphological accuracy, namely 80%. It has not yet been possible to reproduce this high level of accuracy under outpatient conditions. Hence, utilization of these techniques as screening methods in a cancer prevention programme for the early detection of endometrial cancer cannot be realized at the present time. Prerequisites for their use would be further technical improvements in instrumentation and a sufficient level of expertise in the assessment of endometrial smears by differential cytological techniques.