02-06-2025
Womb cancer being found in younger NZ women, researchers say
University of Auckland Researcher Cherie Blenkiron says high rates of obesity and diabetes are contributing to the spike in womb cancer.
Photo:
Supplied/ Unsplash - Ali Abiyar
Younger New Zealand women are now being diagnosed with a cancer that previously struck after menopause, researchers say.
Womb or endometrial cancer is occurring in women aged 30 to 40, and is particularly prevalent in Māori and Pasifika populations.
Pacific Island women have one of the highest rates of this cancer in the world.
University of Auckland Researcher Cherie Blenkiron said high rates of obesity and diabetes were contributing to the spike in womb cancer.
She told
Morning Report
the number of diagnoses had double in the last 10 years.
"The number of women diagnosed every year in New Zealand is around 750, and this has doubled from the number that we saw about a decade ago.
"It's one of the few cancer types that is increasing."
But there was no national screening programme - like breast or cervical cancer - for womb or endometrial cancer, she said.
"Historically this is a cancer that can be quite easily picked up by symptoms.
"So in post-menopausal women, women over the age of 50, abnormal bleeding, a bit of spotting would be really obviously, where as when we start to see this in younger women, that sort of change in behaviour is much harder to pick up."
She said researchers overseas were testing vaginal swabs for DNA changes that indicated cancer of the womb, which was being explored here in New Zealand.
Blenkiron wanted to develop a similar, accurate and affordable test that would pick up the cancer early.
She said if the cancer was picked up early, a "simple surgery" could be curative.
"We really want to raise awareness, particularly in Pasifika Island and Māori populations," she said.
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