Research on endometrial cancer is vastly underfunded compared with other reproductive cancers despite the fact that death rates are increasing, especially in Black women.
Linda Zambrano Guevara (above) from the Duke University Medical Center compared the National Cancer Institute funding for various cancers compared with their “lethality scores,” a metric that accounts for the incidence, mortality, and years of life lost from the individual cancers.
Breast cancer had the highest score of 1.87, meaning it received the most funding relative to its overall lethality. The lowest score was 0.03 for endometrial cancer in Black women. “Breast cancer is very highly funded compared to its lethality, while uterine cancer has a much higher lethality but receives much less funding,” said Zambrano Guevara in a Youtube interview.
See “Uterine Cancer Mortality on the Rise, but Research Remains Underfunded” by Caleb Rans on the Cancer Therapy Advisor website (March 31, 2023)
