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Endometrial Cancer Incidence Tied to Obesity in Young Adult Women
On the back of an increase in cases of endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma in obese premenopausal women, researchers have conducted a study evaluating trends in endometrial cancer incidence and its relationship to obesity in the United States.
“A close examination of the relationship between trends in endometrial cancer incidence and obesity prevalence in young women will provide important information for prevention and early screening of the disease and its precursors,” wrote Fangjian Guo, MD, PhD, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and colleagues, who presented their findings at the virtual 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.
Using the National Program for Cancer Registries and SEER database, the investigators collected data for adult US women aged 20 to 39 years spanning from 2001 to 2017. They also looked at obesity trends among women aged 18 to 34 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III and NHANES 1999-2014.
There were a total of 24,446 endometrial cancer cases among women aged 20 to 39 years from 2001 through 2017. The incidence of endometrial cancer increased from 0.6 per 100,000 in 2001 to 1.2 per 100,000 in 2017 (APC 3.6, 95% CI 2.9-4.4) among young women aged 20 to 29 years old, and from 4.6 per 100,000 in 2001 to 7.5 per 100,000 in 2017 (APC 3.0, 95% CI 2.7-3.3) among women aged 30 to 39 years old.
In addition, the prevalence of obesity increased significantly from 1988 to 2014 among women aged 18 to 34 years old.
Of note, endometrial cancer cases and obesity prevalence occurred at a higher rate in women who were Hispanic than in women from other racial/ethnic groups.
“The significant increasing incidence in endometrial cancer among young adult women is in accordance with the concurrent increasing prevalence in obesity in young girls and women in the United States,” Dr Guo et al reported.
“This indicates that endometrial cancer screening might need to be considered at much earlier age among patients with abnormal bleeding and certain ethnic populations,” they concluded.—Hina Porcelli
Guo F, Levine L, Berenson A. Trends in the incidence of endometrial cancer among young women in the United States, 2001 to 2017. Presented at: the 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting; June 4-8, 2021; virtual. Abstract 5578.
