Endometrial cancer, once found mainly in post-menopausal women, has risen dramatically in recent years among women under 40, baffling reproductive health experts.
UCI Health researchers now report that the alarming increase among younger women, is strongly correlated with soaring obesity rates, a trend they say that requires concerted action to reverse.
From 2001 to 2018, endometrial adenocarcinoma cases increased 137% among women ages 20 to 29, and 71% among women ages 30 to 39, the researchers revealed in a study presented at a recent American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference. The rates were even greater for younger Black women and Latinas.
Over the same period, obesity rates increased 7.5% a year among women ages 20 to 29, and 4.5% annually among women ages 30 to 39, the study found.
A ‘public health emergency’ “Endometrial cancer is most common gynecological cancer encountered in the United States,” says UCI Health gynecologic oncologist Dr. Krishnansu Tewari, co-author of the study.
Now the sixth most common cancer overall in women, endometrial adenocarcinoma also is increasingly deadly. It is expected to claim more than 13,000 lives this year, up from 3,000 deaths annually in the late 1980s.
“This represents a public health emergency,” says the study’s lead author, Dr. Alex Francoeur, who calls for a concerted campaign to educate women and their doctors about the risk obesity poses for developing endometrial adenocarcinoma.
Read more: https://www.ucihealth.org/blog/2024/10/endometrial-cancer-linked-to-obesity