Roberta B. Ness

AbstractBackground: Comorbidities can affect survival of ovarian cancer patients by influencing treatment efficacy. However, little evidence exists on the association between individual concurrent comorbidities and prognosis in ovarian canc…

AbstractBackground: Comorbidities can affect survival of ovarian cancer patients by influencing treatment efficacy. However, little evidence exists on the association between individual concurrent comorbidities and prognosis in ovarian canc…

BACKGROUND: Parity is associated with decreased risk of invasive ovarian cancer; however, the relationship between incomplete pregnancies and invasive ovarian cancer risk is unclear. This relationship was examined using 15 case-control stud…

Abstract Background: Endometriosis is a common gynecologic disorder that affects approximately 10% of women of reproductive age. It is also a well-established risk factor for ovarian cancer. Whether hormonal-related and other risk factors f…

IMPORTANCE: Breastfeeding has been associated with a reduced risk of epithelial ovarian cancer in multiple studies, but others showed no association. Whether risk reduction extends beyond that provided by pregnancy alone or differs by histo…

BACKGROUND: PTEN loss is a putative driver in histotypes of ovarian cancer (high-grade serous (HGSOC), endometrioid (ENOC), clear cell (CCOC), mucinous (MOC), low-grade serous (LGSOC)). We aimed to characterise PTEN expression as a biomarke…

BACKGROUND: Menopausal estrogen-alone therapy is a risk factor for endometrial and ovarian cancers. When a progestin is included with the estrogen daily (continuous estrogen-progestin combined therapy), there is no increased risk of endomet…

To investigate the association between self-reported endometriosis and the putative functional promoter +331C/T single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and the PROGINS allele.

As a follow-up to genome-wide association analysis of common variants associated with ovarian carcinoma (cancer), our study considers seven well-known ovarian cancer risk factors and their interactions with 28 genome-wide significant common…

PURPOSE: Previous epidemiologic studies have shown that smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity are associated with poor survival following a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Yet, the combined relationship of these unfavorable lifestyle facto…

PURPOSE: Multiple studies have examined the role of anthropometric characteristics in ovarian cancer risk and survival; however, their results have been conflicting. We investigated the associations between weight change, height and height …

We aimed to validate the prognostic association of p16 expression in ovarian high-grade serous carcinomas (HGSC) and to explore it in other ovarian carcinoma histotypes. p16 protein expression was assessed by clinical-grade immunohistochemi…

There have been recent proposals advocating the use of additive gene-environment interaction instead of the widely used multiplicative scale, as a more relevant public health measure. Using gene-environment independence enhances statistical…

Background: Comorbidities can affect survival of ovarian cancer patients by influencing treatment efficacy. However, little evidence exists on the association between individual concurrent comorbidities and prognosis in ovarian cancer patie…

To identify common alleles associated with different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), we pooled data from multiple genome-wide genotyping projects totaling 25,509 EOC cases and 40,941 controls. We identified nine new susceptib…

Menstrual pain, a common gynecological condition, has been associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer in some, but not all studies. Furthermore, potential variations in the association between menstrual pain and ovarian cancer by hist…

Inflammation has been implicated in ovarian carcinogenesis. However, studies investigating the association between pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and ovarian cancer risk are few and inconsistent. We investigated the association between P…

Menopausal estrogen-alone therapy (ET) is a well-established risk factor for serous and endometrioid ovarian cancer. Genetics also plays a role in ovarian cancer, which is partly attributable to 18 confirmed ovarian cancer susceptibility lo…

BACKGROUND: Many epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk factors relate to hormone exposure and elevated estrogen levels are associated with obesity in postmenopausal women. Therefore, we hypothesized that gene-environment interactions related…

BACKGROUND: Regulatory T (Treg) cells, a subset of CD4+ T lymphocytes, are mediators of immunosuppression in cancer, and, thus, variants in genes encoding Treg cell immune molecules could be associated with ovarian cancer. METHODS: In a po…

OBJECTIVE: To describe the association between postmenopausal estrogen-only therapy use and risk of ovarian carcinoma, specifically with regard to disease histotype and duration and timing of use. METHODS: We conducted a pooled analysis of…

BACKGROUND: In vitro and observational epidemiological studies suggest that vitamin D may play a role in cancer prevention. However, the relationship between vitamin D and ovarian cancer is uncertain, with observational studies generating c…

BACKGROUND: Despite a large body of literature evaluating the association between recreational physical activity and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk, the extant evidence is inconclusive, and little is known about the independent associ…

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy in the United States. Substantial epidemiologic data implicate an imbalance of estrogens and progestogens in the etiology of this disease. We propose that inflamma-tion also plays…

OBJECTIVE: Clinical genetic testing is commercially available for rs61764370, an inherited variant residing in a KRAS 3' UTR microRNA binding site, based on suggested associations with increased ovarian and breast cancer risk as well as wit…