Reproductive Factors and Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Risk by Histologic Type:A Multiethnic Case-Control Study

Abstract

Associations of reproductive factors with ovarian cancer may differ by histologic type. Data from a multiethnic, population-based, case-control study, conducted in Hawaii and Los Angeles, California, between 1993 and 1999, were used to assess this hypothesis. A structured questionnaire was administered to 558 histologically confirmed epithelial ovarian cancer cases and 607 population controls. Factors suppressing ovulation, including pregnancy and oral contraceptive use, were inversely associated with the risk of all histologic types. Nonmucinous but not mucinous tumors were significantly associated with menstruation years (odds ratio = 1.5 for the highest vs. the lowest quartile) and lifetime ovulatory cycles (odds ratio = 2.8 for the highest vs. the lowest quartile). Duration of breastfeeding (odds ratio = 0.4 for the highest vs. the lowest quartile) was significantly and inversely related to nonmucinous tumors but not to mucinous tumors. Among all tumor types, endometrioid tumors were the most strongly related to pregnancy and tubal ligation, while clear cell tumors were the only type that was associated with noncontraceptive hormone use. The risk factors were similar for borderline and invasive tumors, except for age at diagnosis. Mucinous tumors, both borderline and invasive, were more common in Asian women than in Caucasian and other women. Our data suggest that histologic types of epithelial ovarian cancer are etiologically distinct.

Reproductive and hormone‐related risk factors for epithelial ovarian cancer by histologic pathways, invasiveness and histologic subtypes: Results from the EPIC cohort

“…1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] For example, a collaborative reanalysis of 45 epidemiologic studies found the risk reduction afforded by OC use was evident for serous, endometrioid and clear cell, but not mucinous, tumors 13 and an analysis in the Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium (OCAC) found a positive association between body mass index (BMI) and risk of invasive endometrioid, mucinous and clear cell, but not high grade serous, tumors. 12 However, heterogeneous associations between BMI and EOC histologic subgroups have not been observed in all studies.…”

Gender of Offspring and Maternal Risk of Invasive Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

“…Epidemiologic studies have provided consistent evidence on the protective role of increasing parity in ovarian carcinogenesis (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10), and different mechanisms have been postulated to explain the effect of childbirth on this carcinoma (9). However, childbirth-related factors other than parity have not been extensively explored to provide further information on the potential mechanisms.…”

Alcohol consumption and ovarian cancer risk in a population‐based case–control study

“…Differences have been noted among the histologic types of epithelial ovarian cancer in their biological and epidemiologic features. [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Of the studies that examined ovarian cancer risk by histologic subtype, 8,[14][15][16]36 2 found increased risk among mucinous tumors, 8,15 whereas the others indicated no differential associations according to histology. 14,16,36 In the present study, a positive relationship was limited to serous tumors, whereas no relationship (or a possibly inverse association) was suggested for mucinous and endometrioid/clear cell invasive cancers, and for the borderline tumors.…”