Contraceptive Could Delay Womb Cancer Progression

The standard treatment for endometrial cancer is a total hysterectomy with the removal of the uterus and ovaries, but this solution leaves a woman sterile. However, promising early findings show that an intrauterine device, or IUD, can halt and even reverse cancer growth by delivering progesterone-like hormones to the womb lining. The IUD, combined with monthly injections of gonadotropin-releasing hormone, may allow young women to delay hysterectomy long enough to have children. This process has already enabled nine women with very early womb cancer to have babies.