Hooman Noorchashm, MD, PhD

I write, again, compelled by emerging scientific facts regarding a serious systemic error of negligence on the part of the main American gynecological societies, AAGL and ACOG, and their member practitioners—though the problem I highlight here also affects overseas gynecological counterparts, specifically the RCOG in the United Kingdom.

Despite reporting such a staggering frequency of “missed” gynecological cancer, it is concerning that the Yale authors, like most gynecologists, appear quite relaxed about this level of risk in their paper’s discussion—foremost because this level of oncological risk in women undergoing non-oncological operations is an iatrogenic mortality risk.

The text of Hooman Noorchashm's Nov. 13 letter to the editor of The Cancer Letter follows. Noorchashm is an assistant professor and cardiac surgeon at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Following our discovery that my wife's occult uterine cancer was morcellated using a gynecological power morcellator, we initiated a vigorous campaign to protect others from this avoidable harm. It is now increasingly clear that one in 350-500 women with symptomatic fibroids have occult or missed uterine cancer lurking in what a majority of gynecological surgeons have assumed to be benign tumors.