This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (31)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Oncology  • Women's Health  • Women's Health, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Eva Glud, MD, PhD; Susanne K. Kjaer, DMSc; Birthe L. Thomsen, MSc; Claus Høgdall, PhD; Lise Christensen, DMSc; Estrid Høgdall, PhD; Johannes E. Bock, DMSc; Jan Blaakaer, DMSc

Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:2253-2259.

Background  The association between menopausal hormone therapy (HT) and risk of ovarian cancer is as yet equivocal, and the effect of estrogen and estrogen-progestogen therapy, specifically the effect of the cumulative hormone intake, is unclear.

Methods  We conducted a nationwide population-based case-control study in Denmark. Cases were women aged 35 to 79 years with incident ovarian cancer diagnosed between January 1, 1995, and May 30, 1999. Controls were frequency age-matched women from the Danish Central Population Register. The analyses included data on 376 cases who have not undergone hysterectomy and 1111 controls.

Results  The risk of ovarian cancer in relation to oral HT increased with the cumulative intake of the estrogen component of HT but not with the duration or the cumulative intake of the progestogen component when the 3 variables were mutually adjusted. A simple trend was found such that each additional gram of estrogen was associated with the same relative increase. The odds ratio was constant throughout the range of cumulative intake. After adjustment for established risk factors, the estimated odds ratio per each additional gram of cumulative estrogen was 1.056 (95% confidence interval, 1.003-1.112), corresponding to an odds ratio of 1.31 (95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.70) per 5 g of estrogen.

Conclusions  Oral HT is associated with risk of ovarian cancer in women who have not undergone hysterectomy. Our results imply that the risk increases with cumulative oral estrogen intake but not with duration of HT, indicating that the increased ovarian cancer risk associated with oral HT may be diminished substantially by minimizing the daily dose of estrogen from oral HT.

Author Affiliations: Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen (Drs Glud, Kjaer, and E. Høgdall and Ms Thomsen); the Departments of Gynecology and Obstetrics (Drs C. Høgdall and Bock) and Pathology (Dr Christensen), Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen; and the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Skejby University Hospital, Aarhus (Dr Blaakaer), Denmark.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Hormone Therapy and Ovarian Cancer
Morch et al.
JAMA 2009;302:298-305.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

2-Methoxyestradiol Mediates Apoptosis Through Caspase-Dependent and Independent Mechanisms in Ovarian Cancer Cells But Not in Normal Counterparts
Kato et al.
Reproductive Sciences 2008;15:878-894.
ABSTRACT  

BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutation Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of a Population-Based Series of Ovarian Cancer Cases from Denmark
Soegaard et al.
Clin. Cancer Res. 2008;14:3761-3767.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Risk of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer
Rossing et al.
Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 2007;16:2548-2556.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Menopausal hormone therapy and risk of ovarian cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis
Greiser et al.
Hum Reprod Update 2007;13:453-463.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Different Risk Factor Profiles for Mucinous and Nonmucinous Ovarian Cancer: Results from the Danish MALOVA Study
Soegaard et al.
Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 2007;16:1160-1166.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Ovarian cancer risk in relation to medical visits, pelvic examinations and type of health care provider
Abenhaim et al.
CMAJ 2007;176:941-947.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Menopausal hormone therapy and ovarian cancer risk in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study Cohort.
Lacey et al.
JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst 2006;98:1397-1405.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Smoking and overweight: negative prognostic factors in stage III epithelial ovarian cancer.
Kjaerbye-Thygesen et al.
Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 2006;15:798-803.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Increased risk of ovarian cancer in integrin {beta}3 Leu33Pro homozygotes
Bojesen et al.
Endocr Relat Cancer 2005;12:945-952.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT