If you want to avoid uterine cancer, you are interested in knowing this

When Kath, from the UK, first started experiencing sudden blood loss in 2013, she blamed it on menopause. Despite her daughter’s advice to get a checkup, she continued to work. But just before Christmas 2013 she had a heavy bleeding which led her, finally, to make an appointment with the doctor. In January 2014, was referred to Royal Bolton Hospitalwhere they did a biopsy. The diagnosis: uterine cancer.

“When you hear the word cancer, your mind wanders and I was thinking: ‘Am I going to live to see my grandchildren grow up? And she insists: “I felt bad because I didn’t know what was happening. It was as if he was in a dream. I was devastated.”

Fortunately, your neoplasm was detected at the earliest possible stage, which meant she could have life-saving surgery and had her ovaries and cervix removed. The operation removed the entire tumor; that is, he did not need radiotherapy or chemotherapy, and now he is free of the disease. But his journey did not end there. “After finishing my treatment, I wanted to make some changes”, he asserts.

“Although weight is not the only risk factor, I want to encourage other women to live healthy so that fewer go through what I went through”

He further comments, “We don’t know what caused it, but I must admit that I had a few extra kilos. So now I do exercise and how best to be healthier”. It also participates each year in the Race For Life Cancer Research UK (CRUK), raising money and raising awareness about cancer. “Reading some of the words on people’s backs about why they were running made me remember how important this is,” he emphasizes. He further documents that “it is worrying to see that the rates of my disease are increasing and, Although weight is not the only risk factor, I want to encourage other women to live healthy so that fewer of them go through what I went through.

the findings

with this testimonyscientists from the University of Bristol they wanted to put a face to the conclusions of a new studypublished in ‘BMC Medicine’, one of the first to find that for each additional 5 units of BMIa woman’s risk of uterine (endometrial) cancer is almost it doubles (an increase of 88%).

It is important to highlight that this type of female neoplasm it is the most common in high-income countries, the researchers point out. In our country, It is the second most frequent in women after breast cancer, with an incidence of 604,127 new cases in the year 2020 worldwide and around 2,000 in Spain. However, it is not one of those with the highest mortality rates.

The chances of developing the pathology found in the trial are higher than most previous studies have suggested and reflects lifelong weight status rather than a snapshot in time like most other essays. Five units of BMI is the difference between the category of overweight and obesity

international collaboration

The international studio analyzed genetic samples from around 120,000 women from Australia, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, of which about 13,000 had uterine cancer. This great statistical analysis it is one of the first studies of its kind to analyze the effect of a higher BMI throughout life on the risk of the disease. The researchers looked at markers of 14 traits that could link both diseases.

Obesity is behind the sharp increase in another type of cancer

Patricia Matey

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Thus, they discovered two hormones, fasting insulin and testosterone, which increased the risk of the pathology.

in statements to The Confidential, Dr. Domingo Carrera, specialist in Nutrition at the Surgical Medical Center for Digestive Diseases (CMED), recognize: “It is a very interesting study that finds clearer and closer links between overweight and obesity and cancer. In the case of gynecological tumors there is a clear relationship between excess body fat, hormonal imbalance (estrogens, testosterone and insulin) and its development. It is one more association between gynecological neoplasms (the link between breast cancer and obesity is already known and ovarian cancer is suspected)”.

The mechanisms

And he insists: “The underlying mechanisms have to do with the state of permanent inflammation that obesity generates, the hormonal alteration produced by excess body fat (elevation of basal insulin and testosterone, as well as estrogen alteration). It is known that the inflammatory state produced by having excess fat produces excessive secretions of inflammatory mediators that they can generate epigenetic changes that activate oncogenes responsible for causing cancer. Also hormonal imbalances may be germ of activation of gynecological cancers.

“Fat produces excessive secretions of inflammatory mediators that can generate epigenetic changes that activate oncogenes responsible for causing cancer”

In the case of the uterus, “excess body fat makes insulin not do its job well and insulin resistance is generated. As a consequence of this, the pancreas generates more and increases the basal level. And this hormone has a cell proliferation. Consequently, it stimulates the growth and proliferation of cells with a high capacity to grow and multiply, such as carcinogens. On the other hand, the inflammatory state generated by excess fat alters the function of NK cells or ‘natural killers’, responsible for eliminating defective or tumor cells. In the case of testosterone, this is produced to a greater extent, since it causes more estrogen to be transformed into the ‘male hormone’ in women, which activates cell proliferation.”

The authors of the trial argue that through hormones, in the future, scientists could using drugs to lower or raise their levels in people who already have a higher risk of cancer.

For example, drugs like metformin used to treat diabetes, which we’ve discussed in this space a few times, can lower hormone levels, and research suggests that this drug also affects the risk of cancer, although more studies are underway. uterine cancer it is one of the types most closely related to obesity. But there is more. Own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta) confirm: “Being overweight or obese increases your risk of developing cancer. You may be surprised to learn that both are linked to an increased risk of 13 types of cancer. These they constitute up to 40% of all types diagnosed in the US each year.

And among them, The institution highlights:

• Esophageal adenocarcinoma.
• Breast cancer (in women who have gone through menopause).
• Colon and rectum.
• Uterus.
• Gallbladder.
• Stomach (upper part).
• Kidneys.
• Liver.
• Ovary.
• Pancreas.
• Thyroid cancer.
• Meningioma (a type of brain cancer).
• Multiple myeloma.

Emma Hazelwood, lead author of the essay, says: “This study is an interesting first step in how genetic testing could be used to find out exactly how obesity causes cancer and what can be done to address it. The links in this case we are dealing with are well defined.”

One of the largest studios

Also remember that “this is one of the most complete and largest studies that has investigated exactly why that is at the molecular level. We look forward to further research exploring how we can now use this information to help reduce cancer risk in people struggling with obesity.”

The ‘revolutionary’ therapy against obesity and diabetes

Patricia Matey

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The Dra. Julie Sharp, head of health information for Cancer Research UK, emphasizes that her institution “has led the way in discovering links between obesity and cancer for years. Studies like this reinforce the fact that excess weight is the second leading cause of cancer in the UK and can help us start to identify why. This will play a critical role in discovering how to prevent and treat them in the future.”

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