Ovarian cancer risk and history of selected medical conditions linked with female hormones

To investigate the role of selected medical conditions on the risk of ovarian cancer, we analysed data from a case-control study. Cases were 971 women below the age of 75 years with histologically confirmed epithelial ovarian cancer, admitted to a network of hospitals including the major teaching and general hospitals in the greater Milan area. Controls were 2758 women admitted to the same network of hospitals for acute, non-gynaecological, non-hormone related, non-neoplastic conditions. Obesity/severe overweight were inversely associated with the risk of ovarian cancer (multivariate relative risk, RR, 0.66, 95% confidence interval, CI, 0.52-0.85). Hyperlipidaemia was also inversely related to ovarian cancer risk, (RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.45-0.89). No relationship emerged between ovarian cancer risk and diabetes (RR 0.80, 95% CI 0.54-1.19), hypertension (RR 0.85, 95% CI 0.68-1.06), thyroid diseases (RR 0.89, 95% CI 0.63-1.13) and cholelithiasis (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.66-1.12). A decreased frequency of ovarian cancer was seen in women with a history of uterine leiomyomas (RR 0.66, 95% CI 0.47-0.92) and benign ovarian cysts (RR 0.69, 95% CI 0.41-1.13). (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd