Uterine cancer is on the rise, especially among black women

Cancer will eventually become the third most common type among women, experts say. The death rate is highest among black Americans.

Linda Collins had been nearly a decade into menopause when she started bleeding again. The bleeding was light - occasional spotting, really - and she barely thought of it in passing.

When she finally went for a checkup, her doctor refused to let her go until she has a biopsy. Within days, Ms. Collins learned she had uterine cancer - and a particularly aggressive form of it.

"I had no pain, no other symptoms, and I hadn't seriously thought about it," said Ms. Collins, 64, a retiree in the Bronx. "It was a mistake."

Uterine cancer, also known as endometrial cancer, is growing so rapidly that it is expected to overtake colorectal cancer by 2040 as the third most common cancer in women and the fourth leading cause of death from cancer in women.

The death rate has increased by nearly 2% per year overall, with even steeper spikes in Asian women, Hispanics and blacks, according to a recent JAMA Oncology study.Despite this increase, there has been little public interest in the disease.

Overall survival rates are high. ved when uterine cancer is detected early, but few women are aware that a change in menstrual bleeding, before or after menopause, is one of the main warning signs, along with pelvic pain and urination and painful intercourse.

It has long been believed that uterine cancer is less common in black women. But more recent studies have confirmed that it is not only more likely to strike black women, but also more likely to be fatal.

Black women die twice times more uterine cancer in white women, according to a March report by an expert panel convened by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The gap is one of the largest racial disparities seen for any cancer, according to the report. Black women are also more likely to develop a form called non-endometrioid uterine cancer, which is more aggressive.

Among all populations, cancer of the uterus is more often detected in young women who are still of childbearing age as well as in women who do not have any of the known risk factors, such as obesity, infertility and never having been pregnant , said Dr. Shannon Westin, gynecological oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

When she began caring for women of uterine cancer, she said, there were about 39,000 new cases a year. Today, there are over 65,000 – and she's only been practicing for 15 years.

"It's a clear indicator that we should ring the bell alarm," Dr. Westin said. said.

Dr. Carol Brown, a gynecological oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, called the spike in cases an epidemic.

"The striking statistic is that right now , in the In 2022, the number of women who will die from endometrial cancer in the United States is almost the same as those who will die from ovarian cancer, which is incredible for those of us us who have been practicing for 30 years,” said Dr. Brown, senior vice president and director of health equity at the center.

ImageAdrienne Moore, a respiratory therapist...