ISSN: 1837-9664Journal of Cancer
Global reach, higher impact
J Cancer 2020; 11(18):5456-5465. doi:10.7150/jca.47580 This issue Cite
Review
The Impact of Hormonal Imbalances Associated with Obesity on the Incidence of Endometrial Cancer in Postmenopausal Women
1. Departments of Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
2. Departments of Biological Sciences, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA.
3. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38163, USA.
Abstract
Obesity has long been associated with endometrial cancer amongst postmenopausal women; in fact, obese women are more than twice as likely to develop endometrial cancer as women of normal weight. The risk of developing this type of cancer increases with weight gains in adulthood, especially among women who did not use hormonal therapy for menopause. Thus, with an association between menopause, obesity, and endometrial cancer established, it prompts the following question: what specific factors could cause higher risk levels for endometrial cancer in this cohort of women? In this paper, the factor of hormonal changes and imbalances associated with both obesity and menopause will be examined. The hormones that will be discussed are insulin and insulin-like factors, estrogen, and adipokines (specifically adiponectin, visfatin, and leptin).
Keywords: endometrial cancer, adipokines, estrogen, insulin and insulin-like factors, leptin, visfatin, adiponectin
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