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Understanding Endometrial Cancer - the Basics
What Is Endometrial Cancer?
Various conditions both benign and cancerous (malignant) can affect the uterus, the hollow, pear-shaped organ where a baby grows. Fibroid tumors on the uterine wall are benign (not cancerous), and women who have them are not at increased risk for uterine cancer. Abnormal growth of cells in the uterus' lining -- called the endometrium -- is called endometrial hyperplasia. It is the most serious benign uterine condition, and in some women it evolves into uterine cancer.
Most uterine cancers arise in the endometrium and are called endometrial cancer
or endometrial carcinoma. The more aggressive uterine sarcoma arises in the
wall of the uterus and accounts for less than 5% of all cases.
If left untreated, endometrial cancer can penetrate the wall of the uterus and invade the bladder or rectum, or it can spread to the vagina, fallopian tubes, ovaries and more distant organs. Fortunately, endometrial cancer grows slowly and usually is detected before spreading very far.
What Causes It?
Endometrial cancer is a disease of older (usually postmenopausal) women. More than 95% of these cancers occur in those over the age of 40 with an average age at the time of diagnosis of 63. Postmenopausal women are at high risk for endometrial cancer if they:
- began menstruating early.
- went through menopause late.
- are obese.
- have diabetes or high blood pressure.
- have a history of inherited colorectal cancer.
- have few or no children.
- have a history of infertility, irregular menstrual periods, or endometrial hyperplasia.
Women taking the drug Nolvadex (tamoxifen) to treat breast cancer are at very slightly increased risk. But women who have taken birth-control pills are only half as likely to develop the disease after menopause as those who have not.
Risk for endometrial cancer is linked to the amount of the female hormone estrogen that the endometrium has been exposed to during the woman's lifetime, since estrogen stimulates cell formation. Women who have had a long spam of menstruation have a higher risk of endometrial cancer.
Modern postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) (HRT) has very low doses of estrogen and progesterone, another female hormone that suppresses cell formation. Thenew HTs do not increase a women's risk for endometrial cancer. Nonetheless, women on HT should get regular examinations. Women using estrogen only without progesterone have increased risks of endometrial cancer.
Rare ovarian tumors can produce estrogen and increase a woman’s chance of developing cancer of the uterus.
Recent research has focused on the findings that high fat diets can increase several cancers including endometrial cancer. It has been suggested that fatty foods with high fat and caloric content leads to obesity, which is well known to be linked to increased endometrial cancer. “Fat Tissue” can change hormones into estrogen. Obesity has been linked to breast cancer and thus women who have had breast cancer may have a higher risk for endometrial cancer.
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