The prevalence of endometrial cancer in pre- and postmenopausal Chinese women.
The incidence of endometrial cancer depends in part on the ethnicity and geographical area in which the woman resides. Menopause status is a well-known risk factor for endometrial cancer and most cases occur after menopause. It is, however, less clear how the menopause status is associated with endometrial cancer including its subtypes in Chinese women.



Data on 1,746 women with endometrial cancer including age at diagnosis, age at menopause, and tumor histology from two large obstetrical and gynecological hospitals in China were analyzed.



The median age of women at diagnosis was 50 years. Fifty-eight percent of women were diagnosed after menopause. Fifty-six percent of women with type 1 and 69% with type 2 were diagnosed after menopause. In addition, in both pre- and postmenopausal women, there was no difference in the age at diagnosis between type 1 (46 vs 46 y) and type 2 endometrial cancer (53 vs 52 y).



Our data demonstrate that although both type 1 and type 2 endometrial cancers are more likely to occur in Chinese women after menopause than before, the total prevalence of endometrial cancer is lower in our study population than in previous reports from white women (80%). The age at diagnosis did not differ between type 1 and type 2 endometrial cancers regardless of the menopause status in our study population. Our results caution clinicians to be more aware of the importance of abnormal uterine bleeding in premenopausal Chinese women.
1The Hospital of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China 2Department of Gynae-oncology, Wuxi Maternity and Children Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Jiangsu, China 3Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Yifei
Y
Gao
Min
M
Zhao
Xujing
X
Dai
Mancy
M
Tong
Jia
J
Wei
Qi
Q
Chen
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017698:Postmenopause; D017697:Premenopause; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies