Malignant ovarian germ-cell tumours account for about 5% of all ovarian malignancies and typically present in the teenage years. They are almost always unilateral and are exquisitely chemosensitive. As such, the surgical approach in young women with such tumours confined to a single ovary should aim to preserve fertility. In early disease, a unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy with careful surgical staging is of great importance in selecting appropriate adjuvant therapy. In advanced disease, the role of aggressive cytoreducation is not well defined, and removal of both ovaries does not confer improvement in outcome. Bleomycin, etoposide and cisplatin combination chemotherapy is regarded as the gold standard for adjuvant therapy. Studies evaluating ovarian and reproductive capacity after conservative surgery and chemotherapy for malignant ovarian germ-cell tumours have consistently demonstrated excellent prognosis, with the return of normal menstrual function and fertility rates in these women with no increase in the risk of teratogenicity.
Gynecologic cancer, cervical cancer in particular, is disproportionately represented in the developing world where mortality is also high. Screening programs, increased availability of chemotherapy, and an awareness of HIV-related cancers have in part accelerated a need for physicians who can treat these cancers, yet the infrastructure for such training is often lacking. In this paper, we address the variations in gynecology oncology training in LMICs as well as the ubiquitous challenges, in an effort to guide future agendas.
Women in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) are significantly more likely to develop and die from invasive cervical cancer, while rates of other gynecologic malignancies are comparable to those faced by women in high‐income countries. Despite this increased need, there are few specialist physicians in LMICs available to treat women with gynecologic cancers. Training specialists in low‐resource settings faces multiple challenges, including ensuring protected time from other clinical demands, access to best practice guidelines, training that is tailored to the specific challenges faced in the trainee's environment, and isolation from other fully trained professionals and securing support services. In addition, training specialists from LMICs in high‐resource settings is costly and return of trainees to their own country is not guaranteed. Here we describe two approaches to gynecologic oncology training in LMICs. The International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS) developed the Global Curriculum Mentorship and Training Program (Global Curriculum) to support gynecologic oncology fellowships in regions of the world that do not currently have formal training in gynecologic oncology. In India, on the other hand, leaders in world‐class gynecologic oncology centers must find a way to meet the training needs of a vast and disparate country.
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