Investigating the Mechanisms of Endometrial Cancer Risk in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Can UK Biobank Help?

Abstract

Background: UK biobank was set up to investigate the respective contributions of genetic predisposition and environmental exposure to the development of disease and recruited participants between 2006 and 2010. Our aim was to investigate the feasibility of using UK biobank for exploring the association between polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and endometrial cancer, including the role played by serum IGF-1 levels. Methods:Publicly accessible and freely available online data in the resource section of the UK biobank website were used to determine the prevalence of selfreported PCOS and for assessing the quality of data on ovarian imaging and serum biomarkers. A literature review was conducted to compare rates of PCOS in UK Biobank with other populations.Results: UK biobank contains 273,469 women (age range 37-73 years) of whom 643 (0.23%) self-reported PCOS. This was compared with values ranging from 3.1 % to 19.9% obtained from 16 studies picked up by our systematic literature search. Conclusion:It is feasible to use UK biobank to conduct research into the role of IGF-1 in explaining the association between PCOS and endometrial cancer. More detailed phenotyping of women recruited into the diagnostic group of PCOS is, however, vital to underpin this research. The resulting resource would be excellent for researchers interested in exploring the long-term health risks associated with PCOS.