Melissa Mello Mazepa

4. Discussion During cancer treatment, surgical emergencies unrelated to the primary tumor may occur. Among these, the perforated acute abdomen stands out due to its severity and the immediate need for a surgical evaluation. Although there is no direct relationship with the primary tumor, the question of whether the treatment employed may be involved in causing the perforation and impacting the prognosis is recurrent.

1 INTRODUCTION The incidence of women infected with HIV and AIDS is growing globally.1 In 2005, 17.5 million women were living with these infections—1 million more than in 2003—and of this total, 13.5 million were in Africa. The growing impact of the epidemic on women is also apparent in South and Southeast Asia (where there are almost 2 million infected women), as well as in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.