The incidence rates of endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial cancer: a four-year population-based study

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to determine the incidence rates of endometrial hyperplasia (EH) and endometrial cancer (EC) in the Republic of Korea using national insurance claim data generated from 2009 to 2012. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data that were generated from 2009 to 2012 were sourced from the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service-National Inpatients Sample database. The data from women who were assigned diagnosis codes representing EH or EC within 1 month of being assigned codes that corresponded to procedures that included endometrial biopsies and several types of gynecologic surgeries to obtain endometrial pathology samples, were selected for analysis. RESULTS Data from 2,477,424 women were entered into the database between 2009 and 2012, and the data from 1,868 women with EH and 868 women with EC were extracted for analysis. The mean ages of the patients were 44.1 ± 0.4 years for those with EH and 52.7 ± 0.6 years for those with EC. The EH and EC incidence rates were 37 per 100,000 woman-years and 8 per 100,000 woman-years, respectively. The EH and EC incidence rates peaked when the women were in their late forties and fifties, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The EH and EC incidence rates determined in this study were somewhat lower than those determined from previous studies. Further studies are required that adjust the data for race, menopausal hormone therapy, and obesity.