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Below, week by week, is what OnCo's record of Gestational trophoblastic neoplasia says about the first two months: the order is typical, the timing is yours to ask about. Cancers that grow from placental tissue after a pregnancy. They make a hormone (hCG) that acts as a perfect blood test, and they were the first solid cancer ever cured by chemotherapy. Immunotherapy now rescues the few that resist drugs. Sections appear only where the record has something to say. Orientation, not medical advice.
Staging tests establish exactly what and where the cancer is. Everything else follows from the answers.
Ask which of these were tested and what the results were; see the report reader for what each value means.
These specialties appear in the standard of care for this cancer. In most centres they meet weekly as a tumour board to agree each plan; you can ask when yours was discussed and what was decided.
A second opinion from a centre that treats many similar cases is normal, not rude; the standard of care tells you what to compare it against.
Each row is a setting from the standard of care, in the order it usually arises. Not all will apply to you; your stage and biomarkers decide which do. The guideline grade, where recorded, says how strong the evidence is.
EMA-CO (etoposide, methotrexate, actinomycin D / cyclophosphamide, vincristine); induction low-dose EP for ultra-high-risk; EP-EMA or TP/TE at relapse; surgery for resistant foci.
Single-agent methotrexate (8-day regimen) or pulsed actinomycin D; switch agent on resistance; consolidate 3 cycles after hCG normalisation.
Hysterectomy; platinum-etoposide chemotherapy if metastatic or >4 years from antecedent pregnancy.
PD-1/PD-L1 blockade (pembrolizumab, avelumab), high-dose chemotherapy with stem-cell rescue in selected cases, hysterectomy or metastasectomy.
Generated from this cancer's standard of care, biomarkers and open problems. Take the group that matches where you are. To tick, add your own and print, open the one-page appointment sheet.
Much of what helps in the first weeks is free if you know to ask: testing, helplines, rides and lodging, second opinions, trial travel.
Every term links to the glossary.