Endometrial cancer is cancer that arises from the endometrium (the lining of the uterus or womb). The first sign is most often vaginal bleeding not associated with a woman's period. Other symptoms include pain with urination or sexual intercourse, or pelvic pain. Endometrial cancer occurs most commonly after menopause, and is associated with high blood pressure and diabetes. Approximately 40% of cases are related to obesity, and 2–5% of cases have a genetic link. The most frequent type of endometrial cancer, more than 80% of cases, is endometrioid carcinoma (example pictured). Endometrial cancer is commonly diagnosed by endometrial biopsy or by taking samples during a procedure known as dilation and curettage; a pap smear is not typically sufficient. In 2012, endometrial cancers occurred in 320,000 women and caused 76,000 deaths, making it the third most common cause of death from female cancers, behind ovarian and cervical cancer. If the disease is caught at an early stage, the outcome is favorable, and the overall five-year survival rate in the United States is greater than 80%. ( Full article...)

Recently featured: SMS Scharnhorst – Ford Island – 2008 ACC Championship Game

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that the flower urchin (pictured) was named the "most dangerous sea urchin" in the 2014 Guinness World Records?
• ... that Emma Sulkowicz has protested against Columbia University's handling of her sexual assault case by carrying her mattress around campus?
• ... that Polistes chinensis cannibalize their larvae in prey- and honey-limited conditions?
• ... that the upcoming film Concussion is based on the article "Game Brain" by Jeanne Marie Laskas, a true story about chronic traumatic encephalopathy in NFL players?
• ... that the world's most northerly agriculture is practiced in Svalbard, only 800 miles (1,100 km) from the North Pole?
• ... that Operation Pincushion training continued despite desertion of half its second class?
• ... that B V Keskar, India's longest-serving Minister for Information and Broadcasting, banned the harmonium, Hindi film music, and cricket commentaries on All India Radio?

• Former Chinese domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang (pictured) is arrested and expelled from the Communist Party of China.
• NASA successfully conducts the maiden flight of its Orion spacecraft.
• Dozens of people are killed or injured in clashes between security forces and insurgents in Grozny, Chechen Republic, Russia.
• In Canadian football, the Calgary Stampeders defeat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to win the Grey Cup.
• Australian Test cricketer Phillip Hughes dies after being struck in the neck by a ball bowled to him.
• A previously unknown copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, dated to 1623, is discovered at a library in Saint-Omer, near Calais, France.

Ongoing: Ebola outbreak – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Recent deaths: Ralph H. Baer – Queen Fabiola of Belgium – Jean Béliveau

December 9

• 1872 – P. B. S. Pinchback took office as Governor of Louisiana, the first African American governor of a U.S. state.
• 1917 – First World War: Hussein al-Husayni, the Ottoman mayor of Jerusalem, surrendered (pictured) the city to the British.
• 1931 – The approval of the Spanish Constitution by the Constituent Cortes paved the way to the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic.
• 1958 – The John Birch Society, named after John Birch, an American missionary who was killed in China by communists, was founded to fight the perceived threat of communism in the United States.
• 1979 – A World Health Organization commission of scientists certified the global eradication of smallpox, making it the only human infectious disease to date to have been completely eradicated from nature.

More anniversaries: December 8 – December 9 – December 10