PALO ALTO, CA — Since the beginning of the 21st century, uterine cancer mortality has increased, especially among Black and Hispanic women, according to a new study.
“Since 2001, the uterine cancer mortality rate has increased across all four racial and ethnic groups examined, with the highest increase seen among non-Hispanic Black women,” wrote Stanford University-led researchers. “The largest increase in mortality was observed among younger non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic women.”
Included in the study team analyzing mortality trends in uterine cancer in the United States over 50 years were researchers from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for Advancement of Military Medicine Inc., all in Bethesda, MD. Results were published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.1
The investigators, who emphasized age, race and ethnicity, obtained data on uterine cancer deaths from 1969 to 2018 from the National Center for Health Statistics, adjusting for the hysterectomy rate and pregnancy.
Results indicate that uterine cancer mortality decreased between 1969 and 1997 (from 6.03 to 4.00/100,000) but increased between 1997 and 2018 (from 4.00 to 5.02/100,000). From 2001 to 2018, the researchers report that mortality rates increased by 1.25-fold across all age groups.
The findings include that, In 2018, the mortality rate from uterine cancer for patients aged 70 years or older and 60-69 years was sixfold and threefold higher, respectively, than in younger patients (aged 50-59 years) (54.87/100,000 vs. 27.80/100,000 vs. 8.70/100,000). In fact, the mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women was 2.2-fold higher than for non-Hispanic White, Hispanic and non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander women (17.6/100,000 vs 7.82/100,000, 6.54/100,000, and 4.24/100,000, respectively).
“On an intersection analysis of age and race, non-Hispanic Black women aged older than 60 years had a threefold higher mortality rate than non-Hispanic White women (72/100,000 vs. 24/100,000),” the authors wrote. “A notable finding was that young non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic women (30-39 years) had the highest annual increases in mortality at 3.3% and 3.8% per year, compared with 2.2% in non-Hispanic White women.”
Uterine cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the sixth most common cause of death among women in the United States, according to background information in the study, which pointed out that it is the most frequent gynecologic cancer in the United States, with an estimated 66,200 new cases and 13,030 deaths in 2023.
“Despite advances in cancer research, uterine cancer incidence in the United States continues to rise,” the researchers advised. “Uterine cancer is currently one of the only cancers with increasing incidence and mortality in the United States. Although it affects predominantly postmenopausal women, this rise in incidence has been reported across all age groups.”
They noted that significant racial disparities also exist regarding uterine cancer, the mortality rate from 2010 to 2019 increasing by 1.9% per year among non-Hispanic Black women compared with 1.6% per year among white women.
In 2019, the authors wrote, “the mortality rate in non-Hispanic Black women was nearly double that in white women (9.0/100,000 vs. 4.6/100,000), reflecting the largest Black–White disparity in 5-year relative survival of all cancers (63% vs 84%).”
With obesity a significant risk factor for uterine cancer, the researchers suggested that could be a cause of the increase, along with decreasing rates of hysterectomy for benign pathology.
- Somasegar S, Bashi A, Lang SM, Liao CI, Johnson C, Darcy KM, Tian C, Kapp DS, Chan JK. Trends in Uterine Cancer Mortality in the United States: A 50-Year Population-Based Analysis. Obstet Gynecol. 2023 Oct 1;142(4):978-986. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000005321. Epub 2023 Sep 7. PMID: 37678887; PMCID: PMC10510793.