Nearly 1 in 100 women who have a hysterectomy for fibroids, menstrual disorders or other noncancerous conditions are found to have undetected uterine cancer, according to recent AHRQ-funded study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The National Women’s Health Network says hysterectomy is the second most frequently performed surgical procedure after cesarean section for U.S. women of reproductive age with 600,000 hysterectomies are performed annually.
Researchers analyzed 2003 to 2013 data on about 230,000 women in New York State who had a hysterectomy with no previous cancer diagnosis. Of them, about 1,700 unexpectedly had cancer of the uterine lining and nearly 400 had cancer of the muscular wall of the uterus.
Meanwhile, uterine cancer is on the rise, according the statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with black women disproportionately affected. It’s also one of the few cancers with increasing incidence and mortality in the U.S. Increases have been attributed, in part, to increasing overweight and obese population over the 20-plus years.
The AHRQ brief said researchers in the current study used the results they found to develop risk prediction models based on ethnicity, age, obesity, medical conditions and personal and family histories to help assess uterine cancer risks. They concluded that assessing a patient’s risk of cancer is important for planning the surgical approach and surgical team composition.
