All women are at risk for uterine cancer, but risk generally increases with age, with most women diagnosed after menopause. Lifestyle choices, menstrual history and birth-control history play a role in determining who gets uterine cancer.
The Facts
Uterine cancer is the fourth-most common cancer overall and the most common reproductive cancer found in American women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 37,465 women were diagnosed with the disease in 2005. For those diagnosed with early stage cancer, the five-year survival rate is 95 percent.
Types
There are two types of uterine cancer. Endometrial cancer comprises 95 percent, while uterine sarcomas comprise the remaining 5 percent.
Risk Population
Uterine cancer typically affects women from ages 50 to 70, although 25 percent of women younger than 50 and 2 percent to 5 percent of women younger than 40 get the disease.
Risk Factors
Factors increasing the risk of uterine cancer include increased exposure to estrogen (usually through hormone replacement therapy), having irregular ovulation or menstruation cycles, having periods before the age of 12 or after the age of 50, never having been pregnant, obesity and using Tamoxifen to treat breast cancer.
Prevention/Solution
There is no way to prevent this type of cancer, but women can lower their risks by maintaining a healthy weight, exercising and taking birth-control pills. Women in menopause should ask a doctor for progesterone to balance the effects of estrogen.
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