Risk factors for endometrial cancer according to familial susceptibility

Endometrial cancer (EC) shares some environmental or genetic risk factors with colorectal cancer (CRC). It represents a risk factor for CRC. Furthermore, EC is the most frequent extracolonic neoplasm in HNPCC (hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer) and, in this syndrome, it has the same inheritance pattern as CRC. Neoplastic family history and clinical features were evaluated in women with EC in a health care district (Pordenone Province) in Northeastern Italy from 1990 to 1995, to examine the proportion of patients with hereditary cancer and the relation with clinical characteristics of EC. We interviewed 215 patients with EC (average age 61 years, range 35-88) in relation with some risk factors (age, weight, diabetes, menstrual and reproductive pattern, synchronous and metachronous neoplasms) and we obtained their family pedigree. Twenty-nine patients (13.5%) had a CRC family history, 66 (30.7%) showed an aspecific cancer aggregation in their families and more than half (120, 55.8%) had a negative cancer family history. Family pedigrees were consistent with a dominant inherited cancer pattern in 8 patients (3.7%) belonging to the CRC-related family history group. A different pattern of family history distribution emerged in relation with age (< 55 vs. > or = 55, p < 0.001) and body mass index (BMI) (< 26 vs. > or = 26, p = 0.002). Patients with a CRC pedigree were more numerous in the younger group, in the group with lower BMI and in pre-menopausal women.