Comparison of hysterectomy dissection protocols fo endometrial carcinoma

• Autor(a) principal: Magalhães, Gisela Arlinda Pereira
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/24716
• topic: Endometrial carcinoma; Hysterectomy; Gross dissection; Myometrial invasion; Pathological staging

In 2020, uterine cancer was the sixth most common cancer in women worldwide and the fourth in the United Kingdom. By 2040, its incidence rate could rise by 20.5%, and mortality by 32.9% in the United Kingdom. Suboptimal gross dissection methods can irreversibly compromise histopathological assessment, impacting on staging accuracy, treatment, and quality of care. This report aims to study the advantages and disadvantages of an alternative dissection technique in the histopathological assessment of hysterectomy specimens with endometrial carcinoma, using a traditional dissection technique as a reference standard. A qualitative comparison analysis was performed based on data collected from a literature review, informal interviews with departmental gynaecological pathologists, and case analyses from the histopathology department of Portsmouth Hospital University. While the traditional dissection technique is well-established in the literature, cheaper and provides clearer visualisation of specific areas, the alternative dissection technique introduces significant improvements in both macroscopic and microscopic procedures. It adds a clearer three-dimensional understanding of the tumour/specimen and a more comprehensive assessment of myometrial invasion. This report clarified advantages and disadvantages of both methods, highlighting the alternative dissection method as a step up in terms of efficiency in the histopathological assessment of hysterectomy specimens. Ultimately, this study is the first to describe and document this alternative method.