![]() ![]() Those women are not only likely to be diagnosed at a younger age in general, but often also are at a significant risk of being diagnosed with another cancer in another organ type. This is Lynch syndrome, which is a condition in both men and women that causes an increased risk for colon cancer in men and for endometrial cancer and colon cancer in women, as well as some other cancers, such as breast, ovarian, and urinary tract cancers. About 10% to 20% of women with endometrial cancer will have this cancer as a result of being born with a predisposition for cancer. The number one genetic or inherited risk for endometrial cancer is a condition called Lynch syndrome. Medications such as tamoxifen, which is a common medication for breast cancer treatment, and prophylaxis treatment, which has a stimulatory effect on the endometrium, also result in an increased risk for endometrial cancer. ![]() There are some medications that increase a woman’s risk, such as estrogen therapy without progesterone therapy, which has a balancing-out effect on the estrogen therapy. Other medical conditions that are in some way associated with obesity, but not always, are diabetes and high blood pressure, which may cause an increased risk of endometrial cancer. The fat cells actually make hormonal material that stimulates the endometrial lining and can turn those cells into cancerous cells. Obesity can actually cause the uterine cancer because it is associated with changes in a woman’s hormones. As a result, we are seeing increasing rates of endometrial cancer incidence. And that’s an increasing problem across the United States and the Western world in general. The number one risk factor for uterine or endometrial cancer is obesity. We only reserve these types of tests for women who are really at high risk for developing uterine or endometrial cancer.Ĭancer Network: Are there any known genetic and lifestyle risk factors that put women at risk for endometrial cancer?ĭr. There are some tests that have been looked at, such as using ultrasounds, but these would have to be internal ultrasounds, or doing biopsies of the endometrium, but these are both fairly invasive tests that we don’t think will be helpful for the general population. We also teach women to let their doctors know if they have bleeding postmenopause. But what we teach women, as clinicians, is to understand their bodies and their normal symptoms, particularly abnormal bleeding in a premenopausal woman, and to seek a doctor’s advice if there is a new pattern of bleeding-bleeding in between periods and an onset of heavier period bleeding. There are no specific screening tests for endometrial cancer, not like a Pap smear for cervical cancer. The reason that most women are diagnosed at an early stage is because this type of cancer really does present with symptoms early in its course, and a woman who is clued into these symptoms typically communicates this with her doctor. About 70% of women are diagnosed with cancer confined to the uterus, which is stage I cancer and that is associated with good prognosis. ![]() Very, very occasionally it is diagnosed in a routine Pap smear, but Pap smears are designed to detect cervical cancer and do not reliably detect uterine or endometrial cancer, although occasionally the shed uterine cancer cells can show up in the Pap smear.Ĭancer Network: Are there regular screening methods specifically for endometrial cancer? And are most women diagnosed with early-stage disease?ĭr. This is the classic way that the cancer is typically diagnosed initially, with abnormal uterine bleeding or new emergent bleeding after menopause. For a woman who has stopped having her period, usually for a woman of 50 or over, that means she has new onset bleeding that she has not had for many years, and if it occurs in younger women, it usually means that their regular periods are usually much more abnormal, either heavier or they may be bleeding in between periods. Most endometrial cancer, and by that I mean 90% of women with endometrial cancer, presents with uterine bleeding that is abnormal. Rossi, is endometrial cancer a tumor type that has distinct symptoms?ĭr. Today, we are speaking with Emma Rossi, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Indiana University in Indianapolis, about the diagnosis and treatment of endometrial cancer.Ĭancer Network: Dr. ![]() The National Cancer Institute estimates that about 52,000 new cases of endometrial cancer are diagnosed each year, and about 8,600 women die each year of the disease. Your browser does not support the audio element.Įndometrial tumors form in the tissue that lines the uterus. ![]()
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