Endometrial cancer - carcinoma of the lining of the uterus - is the most common gynecologic malignancy in women.
Description of Uterine Cancer
Endometrial carcinomas arise from the glands of the lining of the uterus, the pear-shaped organ in the pelvis. Cervical cancer and ovarian cancer are other types of gynecologic cancers in women.
Adenocarcinoma accounts for about 75 percent of all endometrial carcinomas. It occurs most often in women 50 to 70 years of age.
Endometrial adenocarcinomas that contain benign squamous cells are known as adenoacanthomas and account for about 17 percent of endometrial cancer.
The remaining three types of endometrial carcinoma have a poor prognosis. Approximately 15 percent of woman have adenosquamous carcinoma, in which both the gland cells and squamous cells are malignant.
Three percent have a clear cell carcinoma, and about one percent have a papillary carcinoma. Uterine sarcoma is another kind of uterine malignancy.
From where it arises in the lining of the uterus, untreated endometrial carcinoma eventually invades the wall of the uterus and may involve the cervix. With time, it can grow through the wall of the uterus into the surrounding tissues (the parametrium), the bladder and the rectum.
It also can spread by the lymphatic system to the vagina, fallopian tubes, ovaries, the pelvic and aortic lymph nodes and to the lymph nodes in the groin and above the collarbone (supraclavicular).

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