Red cells circulate in the blood stream and carry oxygen. If the red blood cell count is low, the condition is called anemia. Weakness and fatigue are common symptoms of anemia. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy can result in lowered red blood cell counts.

A determination of the effectiveness of treatment. This usually requires a measurable amount of cancer( by exam or test) to see if it has become stable, reduced or eliminated. A complete clinical response means that a previously measurable cancer has gone away with treatment. It cannot be detected by examination, blood tests, x-ray or scan. A partial response means that the measurable amount of cancer has decreased by 50%. If there has been minimal reduction in size or if the disease has not changed in size, it is known as stable disease.

A screening test is one which is done on "normal" people without symptoms or physical findings in order to find hidden disease, in this case early or hidden cancer. For gynecologic cancers the only good screning tools available are for cervical cancer, those being the Pap smear and newer technologies like visual tests(PapSure) and viral tests(DiGene). These tests DO NOT test for ovarian or endometrial (uterine) cancer. There are no good screening tests available yet for uterine or ovarian cancer.

Refers to the probability or chance that a test will be negative when the disease that is being tested for is not present. (see SENSITIVITY, NEGATIVE PREDICTIVE VALUE and POSITIVE PREDICTIVE VALUE.

Pronounced "squay-mus", this is the outermost layer of skin, which is 12-24 cell layers thick, located on a microscopic basement membrane. The cells closest to the basement membrane are large, round and have a large nucleus. The cells closest to the surface are flattened and have a small dense nucleus. On exposed skin the outermost layer of cells have lost their nucleus and are filled with keratin to form a protective keratin layer. The word squamous means flattened and refers to these flattened cells.
In normal squamous epithelium, there is a regular progression of the shape of the cells from large and round at the basement membrane to flattened at the surface. There is also a progression in nuclear change from large at the basal layer to small and dense toward the surface and absent at the outermost layer of exposed skin. A dysplasia is a disorder of this maturation progression. (see DYSPLASIA).

The stem cell in the bone marrow is one that gives rise to the blood cells. The stem cells produce both red and white blood cells. If the stem cells are destroyed during chemotherapy then there will be no white blood cells to combat infection, which may be fatal. If some stem cells can be removed prior to chemotherapy, then huge doses of chemotherapy, that would otherwise be fatal, can be given and the stem cells replaced after the chemotherapy. It is called a stem cell because it has the ability to become any of the blood elements. The other cells in the bone marrow have lost this ability and can make only a specific type of blood cell element. Stem cell transplant for solid tumors, especialy for gynecologic tumors, has been all but abandoned. There is no apparent increase in cure rates and the treatment is extremely toxic.

After food is swallowed it travels down the esophagus to the stomach, which is the initial storage and digestive bag for food. From there the food is transferred to the small intestine, then the large instestine or colon, and out through the rectum and anus.