Endometrial cancer, also known as cancer of the uterine corpus, is the most common invasive gynaecological cancer in Australia. It affects approximately 1/80 Australian women by the age of 70 years, and there are about 1400 new cases and 260 deaths from the disease every year. Most affected women are aged between 50 and 70 years, and the total number of cases is increasing each year, due to increasing population age. The problem may be further magnified in the future, with increasing rates of obesity, a known risk factor for the disease.

Endometrial cancer is associated with significant morbidity in the community due to surgery and radiotherapy. There is currently no effective screening procedure for early detection, and the five year survival is poor for certain subtypes of the cancer, particularly for those presenting at an advanced clinical stage.

The Australian National Endometrial Cancer Study is a collaboration between epidemiologists, geneticists, molecular biologists and clinicians. The aim is to identify the causes of endometrial cancer, particularly in Australian women, to help prevent it from occurring and to treat it better when is does occur.

For the study we are recruiting participants nation-wide. We are collecting a broad array of information from each participant, including questionnaire data on lifestyle exposures, family history of cancer, medical information, and biological specimens including blood samples.


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