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Newly Diagnosed: FIGO 2 Uterine Cancer: What does this mean?

Gynecologic Cancers | Last Active: Sep 29 3:14pm | Replies (70)
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@angierivas1

Hello. What’s a positive pelvic washing? Is it something they did test for during your surgery?

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Replies to "Hello. What’s a positive pelvic washing? Is it something they did test for during your surgery?"
Helen, Volunteer Mentor | @naturegirl5 | May 21, 2023

@angierivas1 Were you diagnosed with uterine cancer? If yes, have you had surgery or treatment?

Pelvic or peritoneal washing is a procedure that the surgeon does where a salt-water solution is used to "wash" the peritoneal cavity. The peritoneal cavity is the space in the abdomen where you find the intestines, stomach, and liver. The solution is collected and then sent to pathology where the solution is then checked for cancer cells. A "positive" pelvic washing means that the solution contains cancer cells. A "negative" pelvic washing means that no cancer cells were found.

The washing I described is done after different kinds of surgery including a hysterectomy.

If you scroll down the following linked page you'll find the description of pelvic washing, why it's done and what it means when the washings are positive vs negative.

Surgery for endometrial cancer:

-- https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/endometrial-cancer/treating/surgery.html

Does my explanation answer your questions?

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