Does Molar Pregnancy Increase Risk Of Cancer?

Tumors may grow at any place in your body and takes place whenever cells in your body start to grow out of their control. A few of the tumors may contain cancer cells with them. In fact, cells in almost every part of our body may become cancer and may spread to other areas of our body.

Molar pregnancy leads to the formation or growth of tumors. However, the nature of the tumor in most of the cases is non-cancerous, while in some cases, it becomes a cancerous one.

GTD i.e. Gestational Trophoblastic Disease refers to a group consists of rare tumors and it involves abnormal cells’ growth within the uterus of a woman. GTD never develops from uterus cells as similar to endometrial i.e. uterine lining or cervical cancer cell develops. Rather, tumors in GTDs start within the cells, which may develop normally into placenta at the time of pregnancy period.

GTD starts in the trophoblast cells layer, which normally surrounds one’s embryo. Here, tropho indicates nutrition and blast implies early developmental cell or bud. In case of normal development, trophoblast cells create tiny and finger-like projections referred as villi, which grows within the uterus lining.

With the passage of time, development of trophoblast layer takes place within the placenta i.e. the organ responsible to protect and nourish any growing fetus. Most of the GTDs are of benign or non-cancerous types and they never invade deeply into other tissues or spread to any other part of your body. However, a few of the GTDs are of malignant i.e. cancerous ones.

Molar pregnancy or hydatidiform mole is a common type of gestational trophoblastic disease. It consists of villi swollen due to the presence of fluid. When the swollen vili grows in the form of clusters, it prevents the formation of a normal baby. However, in rare cases only, development of a normal fetus takes place alongside with your molar pregnancy condition. Hydatifiform moles are of non-cancerous in most of the cases, but they can develop into cancerous ones.

A patient may suffer from either of the two different types of molar pregnancy i.e. partial molar pregnancy and complete molar pregnancy.

1. Complete Molar Pregnancy. Complete molar pregnancy or hydatidiform mole develops often whenever a single or two different sperm cells fertilize any empty egg cell i.e. the egg cell that does not contain any DNA or nucleus. Instead, each of the genetic materials in this case comes only from the sperm cell of the father. Because of this, fetal tissue remains absent. Surgery is able to remove most of the complete moles totally. However, in some cases, women may have persistent molar tissue. Persistent mole is usually an invasive one; however, in rare cases, it results in malignant i.e. cancerous GTD form called choriocarcinoma.
2. Partial Molar Pregnancy. Partial mole develops whenever 2 different sperms attempt to fertilize any normal egg. These tumors incorporate few of the fetal tissues but remain usually mixed in with trophoblastic types of tissues. It is essential for you to know that viability of fetus, which has to form for the development of a baby. Doctors may easily remove partial moles via surgical methods. However, a few women with partial hydatidiform mole require further treatment. Partial moles develop rarely to convert into malignant GTD.

Persistent type of GTD i.e. Gestational Trophoblastic Disease is incurable with initial surgery. Here, the problem takes place when hydatidiform mole grows from the uterus’ surface layer within the muscle layer present beneath the myometrium. Surgery is useful to treat and cure a particular partial mole i.e. suction curettage and dilation scrapes present within the uterus. Surgery thus removes only uterus’ inner layer i.e. endometrium but fails to remove the tumor, which already grows into muscular layer. The tumor formed may be either cancerous or a noncancerous one.

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Also Read:

• Molar Pregnancy: Types, Risk Factors, Symptoms, Treatment, Complications
• Do You Have Pregnancy Symptoms With A Molar Pregnancy?
• Is There A Heartbeat With A Molar Pregnancy?
• Can Molar Pregnancy Happen Twice?
• How Do You Detect A Molar Pregnancy?
• Lifestyle Changes For Molar Pregnancy