The death of a 27-year-old actress from uterine cancer has aroused public awareness of the disease, as research shows the rate of some kinds of that cancer is on the rise.

Song Wenfei died on Sunday morning at home in Guangzhou. Zhang Lingzhi, Song's close friend and co-star in the TV series Dancer, first reported the death on her micro blog.

Zhang told a program on Shanghai TV on Monday that Song was first diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2011 but kept working on her TV series until May.