Every year, uterine cancer affects nearly 50,000 women in the United States, with endometrial cancer accounting for 95 percent of all uterine cancers.
However, a new study is showing that women who qualify for and undergo weight-loss surgery could dramatically reduce their risk for this highly common disease.
In regards to endometrial cancer, which affects the lining of the uterus, half of all cases occur in women who are obese. In fact, studies show that obese women are up to four times more likely to develop endometrial cancer than women with body mass indexes considered healthy and normal by medical standards. The latest study, which was presented at a recent meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, found that obese women who decide to undergo weight-loss surgery can lower their risk for uterine cancer by as much as 70 percent.
To arrive at their finding, researchers took a look at the records of nearly seven million admissions of women to several medical hospitals. In collecting and analyzing their data, the researchers learned that obese women who had undergone weight-loss surgery were more than three times less likely to develop uterine cancer than obese women who had chosen to maintain their weight or pursue conventional weight-loss methods of diet and exercise.
Kristy Ward, the lead study author, says that the women they studied with the highest success rates at staving off uterine cancer were those who were able to keep weight off long-term after weight-loss surgery. Ward says that physicians across the country should suggest to their obese women patients that they undergo bariatric surgery since bariatric surgery can help lower the risk for uterine cancer.
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