[Problems in the preoperative diagnosis of cervical involvement in endometrial carcinoma]

In adenocarcinoma of the endometrium it is very important to differentiate stage I from stage II, since each of these stages involves different metastasizing paths necessitating different surgical approaches. Fractionated abrasion yields considerably imprecise information on the extension of the tumour. Whereas a negative cervical fraction is diagnostically very safe, the identification of a tumour via this fraction requires further testing, since contamination by a carcinoma of the endometrium limited to the corpus is more likely than a carcinoma which has penetrated into the cervix. It is recommended to perform additional diagnostic measures, in particular hysteroscopy with target-specific biopsy or abrasion.