VIDEO: Important risk factors of endometrial cancer

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There are some forms of familial endometrial cancer. In particular, we tend to think about Lynch syndrome. And so it's important to note that for women who have Lynch syndrome, 50% of them will be diagnosed after a colon cancer and 50% of them will be diagnosed after endometrial cancer. And so the risk of endometrial cancer is very high in this group. Women who have an early colon cancer or who have a strong family history of colon cancer should bring that up with their physician because maybe they're at risk for Lynch syndrome. This particularly becomes an issue when maybe you have a family that doesn't have a lot of women within it. Maybe there's mostly uncles and male siblings, and so there just haven't been women to get diagnosed with endometrial cancer, particularly because it can be transmitted along the paternal side.

And recognizing that a strong family history of colon cancer should raise concern for both colon cancer, but also uterine cancer. Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic cancer. And in fact, it's more common than all other forms of gynecologic cancer combined. And unlike every other form of gynecologic cancer, the incidence is increasing, whereas for all our other forms of gynecologic cancer, we're actually seeing a decline. We're not entirely sure why endometrial cancer is going up. Part of it has to do with changes in the population. But, it is important to recognize because in the general practice, there will be more endometrial cancer seen in the future years.

And so having more awareness, recognition, is really essential. Part of it's the aging of the population. Part of it is the fact that obesity is a strong risk factor, and we know that there's increasing obesity in the population. Childbearing patterns are changing, so that the most protective thing for endometrial cancer is having children. So as fewer people have children, or they have fewer children, that also increases the risk. So there's just large population demographic changes that are happening. increase the risk for endometrial cancer in sort of a unique way. And so it is gonna be a public health challenge. There are a lot of things that can protect someone against endometrial cancer. So we do know that women who are having a regular cycle, any kind of contraception, very protective against endometrial cancer.