Impact of endometriosis on risk of ovarian, endometrial and cervical cancers: a meta-analysis

Purpose The risks of gynecologic cancer have not been well established in women with endometriosis. The objective of the present study was to investigate the influence of endometriosis on the risk for three gynecologic cancer (ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer and cervical cancer).

We gathered updated evidence about the risk relationship between endometriosis and gynecologic cancers by conducting a comprehensive search of several medical literature electronic databases, including PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library. The design and quality of all studies were evaluated using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS), and a random-effects model was used to calculate pooled risk ratio (RR).

Of the 8538 articles our search produced, we selected 25 qualified studies, including 16 cohort studies and 9 case–control studies. Patients with endometriosis had both an increased risk of ovarian cancer [RR 1.964; 95% CI (1.685, 2.290)]. The risk of endometrial cancer (EC) is not necessarily higher in patients with endometriosis [RR 1.176, 95% CI (0.878, 1.575)]. Endometriosis was not associated with an increased risk for cervical cancer (CC) [RR 0.670, 95% CI (0.537, 0.838)].

Patients with endometriosis need to be closely observed and rechecked regularly to prevent malignant changes. Similar content being viewed by others

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Thanks to all authors who contributed to this article. Author information Authors and Affiliations Contributions Jia Li: select topic, literature search, data extraction and analysis, write the original article. Ruijuan Liu: select topic, literature search, data extraction and analysis, write of the review and editing. Shifeng Tang: data extraction, methodology. Fubin Feng: methodology. Cun Liu: the use of software, statistical analysis. Lu Wang: the use of software, statistical analysis. Wenge Zhao: validate the results, write the original article. Tingting Zhang: write, review, and edit the original article. Yan Yao: write the original article. Xue Wang: literature search. Changgang Sun: select topic, review original article. Corresponding author Ethics declarations Conflict of interest The authors declare to have no conflict of interest. Ethical approval This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. Electronic supplementary material Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material. Rights and permissions About this article Cite this article li, J., Liu, R., Tang, S. et al. Impact of endometriosis on risk of ovarian, endometrial and cervical cancers: a meta-analysis. Arch Gynecol Obstet 299, 35–46 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4968-1 Received: Accepted: Published: Version of record: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4968-1