Statistics show that Black women are more likely to get uterine cancer and die from it. Now, researchers at The Ohio State University want to examine why that is.
OSU researchers are flagging the high rates of uterine cancer and deaths for Black women as a health care crisis as rates of this type of cancer continue to rise. Uterine cancer is now the deadliest form of reproductive cancer among women, according to the American Cancer Society.
Ohio State University oncologist Dr. Casey Cosgrove said his team at the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center is researching the disease. His team is conducting molecular testing on tumor samples from 700 women with this type of cancer. Half of the women are white and half are Black.
"The health disparities in endometrial cancer are a health care crisis. This needs to be on the forefront of our conversations about impacting patient care,” Cosgrove said.
On top of these new statistics, the data shows Black women are being diagnosed at later stages and more are dying from the disease compared to women of other races.
“All endometrial cancers are not created equal. And unfortunately, especially for Black women, many of the more aggressive endometrial cancers are seen in women who are Black. It is imperative that we get to what is driving this on a cellular level, so we can develop better treatment options for this disease,” Cosgrove said.
Cosgrove said typically obesity is the number one risk factor for this type of cancer. But Cosgrove is hypothesizing that molecular differences of the disease in Black women versus white women could play a big role.
Cosgrove also said he hopes the findings will shed light on what is happening. He said this could help personalize therapies for patients based on race, ethnicity and other factors.
About 3% to 5% of endometrial cancers can be explained by known genetic risk factors, which include Lynch syndrome. Women who carry a Lynch syndrome mutation have up to a 60% lifetime risk of developing endometrial cancer.
The research is funded by the National Cancer Institute and President Joe Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative to look at how DNA/RNA-levels drive the disease.
