Most uterine cancers are endometrial cancers. These cancers start in the endometrium, or lining of the uterus. Rates of uterine cancer have been rising among women of color for decades. Black women are twice as likely to die of uterine cancer and endometrial cancer compared to other racial groups. 

Hispanic women are suffering the fastest increase in cancer-related deaths from aggressive subtypes of uterine cancer. Scientific literature documents that Hispanic women have the highest rate of uterine cancer among reproductive-age women with a two-fold annual increase in the cancer rate compared to white women. The 5-year ovarian cancer survival rate is 25% less among black women than white women.

There are approximately 21 million black women living in the United States. According to one study published in 2018, almost 90% of those women suffer from uterine fibroids. Black women have twice the rate white women have of hysterectomies for clinically significant fibroids In the age group 18-30, about 25% of black women suffer from uterine fibroids as compared to about 6% of white women in the same age group.

The American Cancer Society estimates around 13,000 women in the United States will die of uterine cancer and over 12,000 women will die of ovarian cancer every year. The National Institutes of Health, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and other publications have established an alarming link between chemical hair relaxers and uterine/endometrial and ovarian cancer. These studies conclude that women who regularly use chemical hair relaxers are more than twice as likely to develop uterine/endometrial and ovarian cancer. Additional funding for epidemiological studies is flooding into the scientific community, so the link between chemical hair relaxers and these cancers can be further explored.