Racial and ethnic variations in the incidence of cancers of the uterine corpus, United States, 2001-2003.

OBJECTIVE: We examined racial/ethnic variations in uterine corpus cancer incidence.

METHODS: Data are from state cancer registries meeting quality criteria in the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) programs, 2001-2003. We included females with microscopically confirmed invasive uterine corpus cancer (n = 97,098). We calculated age-adjusted incidence rates per 100,000, stratified by race and ethnicity.

RESULTS: Cancers were most common among women who were 50-64 years old, white and non-Hispanic. Epithelial cancer rates were lower for Asian/Pacific Islanders (API) than whites (12.8 vs. 21.7, p < 0.0001), including serous adenocarcinoma (0.5 vs. 0.9, p < 0.0001). Epithelial cancer rates were also lower for American Indian/Alaska Natives (AIAN) vs. whites (11.5 vs. 21.7, p < 0.0001) and Hispanics vs. non-Hispanics (16.0 vs. 21.3, p < 0.0001). Among all race groups, blacks had the highest rates of mesenchymal (0.9) and mixed cancers (2.0) and of serous adenocarcinoma (2.0), clear cell adenocarcinoma (0.5), and carcinosarcoma (1.9). Blacks also had the lowest rates of low-grade and localized stage epithelial cancer and the highest rates of high-grade and distant stage disease.

CONCLUSIONS: Uterine corpus cancer rates are generally lower for API and AIAN than for whites or blacks and for Hispanics vs. non-Hispanics. Further research is needed to understand reasons for the differences in incidence.