Is uterine cancer hereditary?

If you have uterine cancer, you may ask if uterine cancer is hereditary? In fact, the correct name for uterine cancer is uterine body cancer or endometrial cancer, which mainly occurs in the uterus and is different from cervical cancer. Uterine cancer is the second most common cancer that troubles women, second only to breast cancer. So is uterine cancer hereditary?

In fact, it is generally not hereditary. It’s just that if there is a family history of the disease, the chance of getting the disease is slightly higher than that of normal people. In addition, the chance of uterine fibroids becoming malignant is extremely small.

Women at high risk of uterine cancer include postmenopausal women with early menarche or late menopause; those who are obese, diabetic, or have high blood pressure; those who have few or no children; those who are infertile; those who have irregular menstruation; or those who have endometrial hyperplasia. The susceptibility of endometrial cancer is related to the level of estrogen in the endometrium that is not antagonized by progesterone. The reason is simple: as cells divide rapidly, the chances of cancer cells mutating increase, and while estrogen stimulates cell division, progesterone inhibits cell division.

Hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women, using a combination of estrogen and progestin, reduces the risk of endometrial cancer. However, women taking hormone replacement therapy should be checked regularly for signs of endometrial cancer.