Uterine (endometrial) cancer has pulled even with ovarian cancer as a leading cause of gynecologic cancer mortality, accompanied by an “alarming” racial disparity, reports Rebecca Siegel (above) of the American Cancer Society and her colleagues.
Mortality patterns were similar among racial and ethnic groups until 2005, when uterine cancer mortality increased dramatically in Black women, resulting in a twofold greater mortality rate ratio versus white women by 2019.
The alarming disparity in uterine cancer mortality in Black compared with White women is an underestimate of the true excess burden because rates were uncorrected for higher hysterectomy prevalence among Black women,” the researchers pointed out. (Women who have undergone hysterectomies are no longer at risk for endometrial cancer.)
The risk of death from uterine cancer is now similar to that for ovarian cancer among women overall and approximately 60 percent higher among Black women based on national mortality statistics.
See “Uterine Cancer Mortality Now Neck and Neck With Ovarian Cancer” by Charles Bankhead on the MedPage Today website (February 9, 2022)
Endometrial cancer deaths now even with deaths from ovarian cancer
