Hispanic women in the U.S. could experience increased instances of uterine cancer triple in the next five years, USA Today reported April 26, highlighting a 2022 study published in Gynecologic Oncology.
Throughout a 17-year research timeline, authors of the study reported that 843,116 patients were diagnosed with uterine cancer — and of those, Hispanic women between the ages 35-39 showed the highest rate of cancer diagnoses, a rate that was 49 percent higher than white females of the same age group.
"The incidence of uterine cancer is rising rapidly in young reproductive-age Hispanic women compared to White women," researchers wrote. "These results may have public health implications towards the prevention and early detection of uterine cancer in this high-risk population."
According to USA Today, experts are not clear on what is driving the stark disparity. Some suggest that some of it may be attributed to conditions such as obesity and diabetes, which raise the risk of uterine cancer and affect Hispanic women at higher rates.
But others say it may not be so simple.
"Are these disparities driven by obesity alone? Probably not," Cortney Eakin, MD, co-author of the study and OB-GYN and research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles told USA Today.
The authors suggest that further research should be conducted to learn more about the disparities affecting this group of women and how to combat them.