Study finds racial and ethnic differences in rising uterine cancer mortality rates in the United States

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.May 5 2022

What

Deaths from uterine cancer are rising in the United States, and are highest among non-Hispanic Black women, according to a new study led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The higher death rates are related to the rising incidence of aggressive subtypes of uterine cancer.

The researchers found that, from 2010 to 2017, deaths of women from all racial and ethnic groups from uterine cancer overall increased 1.8% per year. Deaths from non-endometroid subtypes of uterine cancer—which are more aggressive than endometrioid cancers—increased by 2.7% per year, whereas endometrioid cancer mortality rates were stable during this period. Black women had more than twice the rate of deaths from uterine cancer overall and of non-endometrioid subtypes compared to other racial and ethnic groups.

Who

Megan A. Clarke, Ph.D., Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI, the study's lead author

The study

"Racial and Ethnic Differences in Hysterectomy-Corrected Uterine Corpus Cancer Mortality by Stage and Histologic Subtype" will appear on May 5, 2022, in JAMA Oncology. 10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.0009