How common is endometrial cancer?

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic cancer and the fourth most common cancer in women in the United States. Over 40,000 cases of endometrial cancer are diagnosed each year in the U.S., where 1 woman out of 41 develops the disease.¹

Endometrial cancer is most often diagnosed in women between 50 and 65 years old and in postmenopausal women. Women younger than age 40 account for 5% of endometrial cancer diagnoses. In most cases these younger women are either greatly overweight or not ovulating, or they have both of these problems.² Women who have had a hysterectomy have no risk of developing endometrial cancer.

Caucasian women develop endometrial cancer at a higher rate than African-American women. But African-American women have a higher death rate from endometrial cancer.³

Citations

1. American Cancer Society (2008). Cancer Facts and Figures 2008. Atlanta: American Cancer Society. Available online: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/STT/content/STT_1x_Cancer_Facts_and_Figures_2008.asp.
2. Mutch DG (2008). Uterine cancer. In RS Gibbs et al., eds., Danforth's Obstetrics and Gynecology, 10th ed., pp. 1002–1021. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
3. American Cancer Society (2006). Cancer Facts and Figures 2006, pp. 1–56. Atlanta: American Cancer Society. Available online: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/STT/stt_0.asp.