Uterine cancer diagnosis and mortality rates both continue to increase, according to the latest data from the American Cancer Society. It is also the only cancer for which survival rates have continuously fallen over the last 40 years.
Uterine cancer also has one of the "largest racial disparities in mortality" rates. Mortality rates are highest for Black women.
In 2024, uterine cancer is projected to kill 13,250 U.S. women and exceed ovarian cancer rates to become the No. 1 deadliest gynecologic cancer, The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 12.
The cancer has also increased in women under 50, following a trend oncology experts continue to monitor across the U.S. related to rising rates of cancer in general among young adults.
"This was considered a cancer that had very good survival and was very easy to treat," Megan Clarke, PhD, a gynecologic cancer researcher at the National Cancer Institute, told the Journal. "But the epidemiology has changed, and I think opinions are starting to change as well."
The cancer usually presents one of two ways in patients: slow-growing and related to spiked estrogen levels, which can typically be treated and cured, or a more aggressive kind that is not hormone-related, according to the Journal. The latter is the one becoming more commonly diagnosed, and it is much more difficult to treat.
Experts are not sure what is causing the increase in mortality rates or diagnoses of uterine cancer, but told the Journal it is likely beyond explanations like rising obesity rates, fewer procedures to remove the uterus in certain cases, leaving it vulnerable to developing cancer later on, and chemical hair straighteners, which have been linked to the cancer.