The most common type of gynecologic cancer in the U.S. has been on the rise in recent years — and there’s no standard screening for it.

Uterine cancer will affect about 66,200 women in 2023 in the U.S. — and around 13,000 will die from the disease, per the American Cancer Society (ACS).

"While we are seeing a downward trend in overall cancer cases, uterine cancer is one of the few types where we're seeing an upward trend," said Dr. Brian Slomovitz, director of gynecologic oncology and co-chair of the Cancer Research Committee at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida, in an interview with Fox News Digital.

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"We’re anticipating that the number of deaths in the United States due to uterine cancer is soon going to outnumber the deaths due to ovarian cancer," he added.

To help raise awareness, the International Society of Gynecologic Cancer announced the first-ever Uterine Cancer Awareness Month in June.

Slomovitz — who also serves as chair of the Uterine Cancer Awareness Month initiative — spoke to Fox News Digital about the state of uterine cancer and what women need to know.

The terms "uterine cancer" and "endometrial cancer" are often used interchangeably, but there is a difference, Slomovitz said.

A vast majority of these types of cancers occur in the outer and inner layers of the uterus, known as the endometrium — hence the term "endometrial cancer."

About 4% to 5% of the cancers occur in the muscle of the uterus. These are known as uterine sarcomas.

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"Sarcomas are aggressive diseases with a tremendously high death rate," Slomovitz explained. "But all of them fall in the category of uterine cancers."

Obesity is the biggest risk factor for uterine cancer, Slomovitz said.

"Fat tissue increases the amount of estrogen in the body, and endometrial cancer is a hyper estrogenic," he explained. "It stimulates the lining of the uterus to the point of uncontrolled proliferation into cancer."

Overweight women (with a body mass index of 25 to 29.9) have twice the risk of developing uterine cancer as women at a healthy weight, the ACS website states.

Obese women (BMI of 30 or higher) have three times the risk.

Those with diabetes, which is closely related to obesity, are also at a higher risk.

A less common risk factor could be polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which is a hormonal disorder that can lead to enlarged ovaries and the formation of cysts. 

PCOS leads to elevated estrogen levels and lower progesterone levels, which can raise the risk of endometrial cancer, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS) website.

Some hereditary syndromes can make women more susceptible to uterine cancer.

"One of those is Lynch syndrome, which was often associated with colorectal cancer," said Slomovitz.

"We know that half the women who develop cancer from Lynch syndrome develop endometrial cancer."

Age is also a risk factor, as most patients are diagnosed in their 50s and 60s, the doctor said.

"The increase in cases may be due to obesity, but we're also seeing longer life expectancy," he noted. "The older people get, the more likely that they are to get endometrial cancer, obviously."

While other cancers have specific, recommended screenings — such as mammograms for breast cancer and colonoscopies for colorectal cancer — there are no pre-symptomatic screenings for uterine cancers, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Pap smear (Pap test) checks for cervical cancer and precancerous cells in the cervix, but does not screen for uterine cancer.

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The most common sign or symptom of uterine cancer is abnormal bleeding, Slomovirz said.

"Most uterine cancer patients have postmenopausal bleeding as an early sign or symptom — however, that's not the case for everyone," he said.

In premenopausal women, it can be more difficult to determine what constitutes "abnormal" bleeding, the doctor noted. 

"They shouldn't just assume it's changes in their menstrual cycle," he said. 

In the absence of a formal screening process, Slomovitz stressed the need to recognize symptoms and take quick action.

"We need to better educate patients to come see their doctors sooner if they have symptoms," he told Fox News Digital. 

In addition to bleeding, other symptoms may include pelvic pain or pelvic pressure.

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"We always tell people that if they have symptoms that are worsening or if they persist after 10 to 14 days, they should come in to see their doctor just to make sure everything's OK," Slomovitz said.

"We're still seeing a large number of patients who are diagnosed with advanced and recurrent disease."

The diagnosis process typically starts with an ultrasound to take images of the uterus, followed by a tissue biopsy — either to diagnose or rule out the disease, said Slomovitz.

In cases of advanced cancer, patients will usually get additional tests — such as chest X-rays, CT scans, MRIs or PET scans — to determine if the disease has spread.

"It traditionally spreads through the lymphatic system, which means lymph nodes can be enlarged," Slomovitz explained. "It can also spread to the liver or the lungs through the blood system."

In patients who have had endometrial cancer in the past, a gynecologic oncologist will instruct them that for any future symptoms, recurring cancer must be ruled out. 

"They're cancer patients — so even in the non-specific symptoms, it's worthy of seeing their oncologist again to make sure it's not coming back," Slomovitz said.

In women who are diagnosed with uterine cancer, one of the first steps is usually a hysterectomy, which is the removal of the uterus.

"Eighty percent of women are cured with a hysterectomy," Slomovitz said.

To further minimize risk, the doctor said medical professionals will often do lymph node sampling as well to make sure the cancer hasn't spread.

"But for the additional 20% of patients who have advanced or recurrent disease, systemic therapies are needed," he said. "We need to do better with treatment options for uterine cancer."

For these aggressive cases, the systemic therapies have been chemotherapy or hormonal therapy, which uses progesterone to slow down tumor growth.

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This year, Slomovitz said, some breakthrough studies have shown that immunotherapy can be given in the first-line management of the disease.

Immunotherapy treatments work by helping the immune system to slow, stop or destroy cancer cells. It’s shown to be effective for lung cancer, oral cancer and melanoma, the doctor pointed out.

At the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in May 2023, researchers presented promising results for a new class of drugs called antibody-drug conjugates (ADCS), a targeted therapy for treating cancer, Slomovitz said.

Future studies will continue to look at these types of targeted drugs.

"One of my career goals is to use immunotherapy and targeted therapy to eliminate the need for chemotherapy and its associated toxicities and side effects," Slomovitz said.

Another "groundbreaking" advancement Slomovitz is particularly excited about is molecular classification, which divides uterine cancers into four different subtypes — thus allowing for more precise, personalized treatment options.

"We're in a very exciting time," he said. "There are some game-changing studies that are coming out, as we try to fill this unmet need to help our patients live longer."

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SEATTLE (AP) — The next big advance in cancer treatment could be a vaccine.

After decades of limited success, scientists say research has reached a turning point, with many predicting more vaccines will be out in five years.

These aren’t traditional vaccines that prevent disease, but shots to shrink tumors and stop cancer from coming back. Targets for these experimental treatments include breast and lung cancer, with gains reported this year for deadly skin cancer melanoma and pancreatic cancer.

“We’re getting something to work. Now we need to get it to work better,” said Dr. James Gulley, who helps lead a center at the National Cancer Institute that develops immune therapies, including cancer treatment vaccines.

More than ever, scientists understand how cancer hides from the body’s immune system. Cancer vaccines, like other immunotherapies, boost the immune system to find and kill cancer cells. And some new ones use mRNA, which was developed for cancer but first used for COVID-19 vaccines.

For a vaccine to work, it needs to teach the immune system’s T cells to recognize cancer as dangerous, said Dr. Nora Disis of UW Medicine’s Cancer Vaccine Institute in Seattle. Once trained, T cells can travel anywhere in the body to hunt down danger.

“If you saw an activated T cell, it almost has feet,” she said. “You can see it crawling through the blood vessel to get out into the tissues.”

Patient volunteers are crucial to the research.

Kathleen Jade, 50, learned she had breast cancer in late February, just weeks before she and her husband were to depart Seattle for an around-the-world adventure. Instead of sailing their 46-foot boat, Shadowfax, through the Great Lakes toward the St. Lawrence Seaway, she was sitting on a hospital bed awaiting her third dose of an experimental vaccine. She’s getting the vaccine to see if it will shrink her tumor before surgery.

“Even if that chance is a little bit, I felt like it’s worth it,” said Jade, who is also getting standard treatment.

Progress on treatment vaccines has been challenging. The first, Provenge, was approved in the U.S. in 2010 to treat prostate cancer that had spread. It requires processing a patient’s own immune cells in a lab and giving them back through IV. There are also treatment vaccines for early bladder cancer and advanced melanoma.

Early cancer vaccine research faltered as cancer outwitted and outlasted patients’ weak immune systems, said Olja Finn, a vaccine researcher at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

“All of these trials that failed allowed us to learn so much,” Finn said.

As a result, she’s now focused on patients with earlier disease since the experimental vaccines didn’t help with more advanced patients. Her group is planning a vaccine study in women with a low-risk, noninvasive breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ.

More vaccines that prevent cancer may be ahead too. Decades-old hepatitis B vaccines prevent liver cancer and HPV vaccines, introduced in 2006, prevent cervical cancer.

In Philadelphia, Dr. Susan Domchek, director of the Basser Center at Penn Medicine, is recruiting 28 healthy people with BRCA mutations for a vaccine test. Those mutations increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The idea is to kill very early abnormal cells, before they cause problems. She likens it to periodically weeding a garden or erasing a whiteboard.

Others are developing vaccines to prevent cancer in people with precancerous lung nodules and other inherited conditions that raise cancer risk.

“Vaccines are probably the next big thing” in the quest to reduce cancer deaths, said Dr. Steve Lipkin, a medical geneticist at New York’s Weill Cornell Medicine, who is leading one effort funded by the National Cancer Institute. “We’re dedicating our lives to that.”

People with the inherited condition Lynch syndrome have a 60% to 80% lifetime risk of developing cancer. Recruiting them for cancer vaccine trials has been remarkably easy, said Dr. Eduardo Vilar-Sanchez of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who is leading two government-funded studies on vaccines for Lynch-related cancers.

“Patients are jumping on this in a surprising and positive way,” he said.

Drugmakers Moderna and Merck are jointly developing a personalized mRNA vaccine for patients with melanoma, with a large study to begin this year. The vaccines are customized to each patient, based on the numerous mutations in their cancer tissue. A vaccine personalized in this way can train the immune system to hunt for the cancer’s mutation fingerprint and kill those cells.

But such vaccines will be expensive.

“You basically have to make every vaccine from scratch. If this wasn’t personalized, the vaccine could probably be made for pennies, just like the COVID vaccine,” said Dr. Patrick Ott of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

The vaccines under development at UW Medicine are designed to work for many patients, not just a single patient. Tests are underway in early and advanced breast cancer, lung cancer and ovarian cancer. Some results may come as soon as next year.

Todd Pieper, 56, from suburban Seattle, is participating in testing for a vaccine intended to shrink lung cancer tumors. His cancer spread to his brain, but he’s hoping to live long enough to see his daughter graduate from nursing school next year.

“I have nothing to lose and everything to gain, either for me or for other people down the road,” Pieper said of his decision to volunteer.

One of the first to receive the ovarian cancer vaccine in a safety study 11 years ago was Jamie Crase of nearby Mercer Island. Diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer when she was 34, Crase thought she would die young and had made a will that bequeathed a favorite necklace to her best friend. Now 50, she has no sign of cancer and she still wears the necklace.

She doesn’t know for sure if the vaccine helped, “But I’m still here.”

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Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Government, through the Essential Medicines and Logistics Support Central Program (Promese/Cal), has allocated a budget of 1,098,585,524.70 for the purchase of medicines and health supplies. This initiative aims to strengthen the supply of hospitals and public health centers across the country from August to December 2023.

Promese/Cal conducted a transparent and compliant process for the National Public Tender reference: PROMESE/CAL-CCC-LPN-2023-0002, in accordance with the Law on Public Purchases and Contracts 340-06.

Adolfo Pérez, the general director of Promese/Cal, explained that the purchase aims to ensure that essential medicines are readily available to the population attending public health centers in a timely manner. This extraordinary purchase was made possible by the government’s increased allocation to Promese/Cal in the 2023 budget, reflecting President Luis Abinader’s commitment to safeguarding the health of the Dominican people.

Omar García, the director of medicines at the Health Service (SNS), praised the transparency demonstrated by Promese/Cal in its procurement processes. He highlighted the collaborative efforts between the SNS, led by Dr. Mario Lama, Promese/Cal, and the Treasury to increase the budget for purchasing more medicines and supplies. This adjustment will help meet the needs of hospitals and primary care centers.

The tender included 361 items, such as vitamins, anticonvulsants, neuroleptics, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, anti-inflammatories, antihistamines, anthelmintics, antidiabetics, antimicrobials, inhibitors, erythropoietin, insulin, spinal needles, serum downpipes, cannulas, catheters, syringes, and others.

Seventy bidders participated in the highly competitive process, with 1,206 product samples received. Of these, 889 were deemed compliant, while 309 were non-compliant. Some lines were left empty due to non-submission of samples, non-compliance with requirements, or disqualification.

The event was conducted publicly at a hotel in the capital and broadcast virtually. It was attended by public notaries, bidders, a Compliance Officer from the Public Procurement Department, the Promese/Cal purchasing committee, and members of the media.