Roberta B. Ness

Ovarian cancer is a commonly fatal disease for which pre-vention strategies have been limited, in part because of a lack of understanding of the underlying biology. This paper re-views the epidemiologic literature in the English language on…

Previously developed models for predicting absolute risk of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer have included a limited number of risk factors and have had low discriminatory power (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC…

Disruption in circadian gene expression, whether due to genetic variation or environmental factors (e.g., light at night, shiftwork), is associated with increased incidence of breast, prostate, gastrointestinal and hematologic cancers and g…

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether endometriosis-associated genetic variation affects risk of ovarian cancer. DESIGN: Pooled genetic analysis. SETTING: University hospital. PATIENT(S): Genetic data from 46,176 participants (15,361 ovarian ca…

BACKGROUND: In U.S. women, lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1.37%, but some women are at a substantially lower or higher risk than this average. METHODS: We have characterized the distribution of lifetime risk in the general population. …

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated associations between endometriosis and certain histotypes of ovarian cancer, including clear cell, low-grade serous and endometrioid carcinomas. We aimed to determine whether the observed associatio…

BACKGROUND: Regular aspirin use is associated with reduced risk of several malignancies. Epidemiologic studies analyzing aspirin, nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), and acetaminophen use and ovarian cancer risk have bee…

SCOPE: We reevaluated previously reported associations between variants in pathways of one-carbon (1-C) (folate) transfer genes and ovarian carcinoma (OC) risk, and in related pathways of purine and pyrimidine metabolism, and assessed inter…

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a heterogeneous cancer with both genetic and environmental risk factors. Variants influencing the risk of developing the less-common EOC subtypes have not been fully investigated. We performed a genome-wid…

A missense single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the immune modulatory gene IL1A has been associated with ovarian cancer risk (rs17561). Although the exact mechanism through which this SNP alters risk of ovarian cancer is not clearly unde…

BACKGROUND: Ovarian carcinoma is composed of five major histologic types, which associate with outcome and predict therapeutic response. Our aim was to evaluate histologic type assessments across the centers participating in the Ovarian Tum…

PURPOSE: The majority of previous studies have observed an increased risk of mucinous ovarian tumors associated with cigarette smoking, but the association with other histological types is unclear. In a large pooled analysis, we examined th…

BACKGROUND: There are several well-established environmental risk factors for ovarian cancer, and recent genome-wide association studies have also identified six variants that influence disease risk. However, the interplay between such risk…

HNF1B is overexpressed in clear cell epithelial ovarian cancer, and we observed epigenetic silencing in serous epithelial ovarian cancer, leading us to hypothesize that variation in this gene differentially associates with epithelial ovaria…

Genital powder use has been associated with risk of epithelial ovarian cancer in some, but not all, epidemiologic investigations, possibly reflecting the carcinogenic effects of talc particles found in most of these products. Whether risk i…

University of Pittsburgh, Objective: We prospectively evaluated the rate of adverse reproductive outcomes following pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in a small cohort of American women. Methods: We enrolled 28 patients having either salpin…

BACKGROUND: Studies evaluating the association between alcohol intake and ovarian carcinoma (OC) are inconsistent. Because OC and ovarian borderline tumor histologic types differ genetically, molecularly and clinically, large numbers are ne…

BACKGROUND: Tubal ligation is a protective factor for ovarian cancer, but it is unknown whether this protection extends to all invasive histological subtypes or borderline tumors. We undertook an international collaborative study to examine…

BACKGROUND: Aspirin, nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NA-NSAIDs) and acetaminophen all have biologic effects that might reduce the risk of ovarian cancer. However, epidemiologic data on this question are mixed. METHODS: A p…

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis is a risk factor for epithelial ovarian cancer; however, whether this risk extends to all invasive histological subtypes or borderline tumours is not clear. We undertook an international collaborative study to asse…

BackgroundEndometriosis is a risk factor for epithelial ovarian cancer; however, whether this risk extends to all invasive histological subtypes or borderline tumours is not clear. We undertook an international collaborative study to assess…

BACKGROUND: Previous studies examining associations between use of fertility drugs and ovarian cancer risk have provided conflicting results. We used data from a large case-control study to determine whether fertility drug use significantly…

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between self-reported endometriosis and the putative functional promoter +331C/T single nucleotide polymorphism and the PROGINS allele. DESIGN: Control subjects from ovarian cancer case-control stu…

Chlamydia trachomatis polymorphic membrane proteins (Pmps) may increase genital tract inflammation and play a role in virulence. Antibody levels for PmpA, PmpD, and PmpI, measured in densitometric units, were assessed among a pilot sample o…