Ovarian cancer risk factors in relation to family history

Guoqiao Zheng, Louise Baandrup, Jiangrong Wang, Rasmus Hertzum-Larsen, Charlotte Gerd Hannibal, Mette Tuxen Faber, Karin Sundström, Susanne K Kjær
Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2024 · vol. 116(11) , pp. 1767–1774 · doi:10.1093/jnci/djae164 · PMID:38964345
other OA: green public-domain-us
🔓 Open OA copy Full text JSON View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-11 · read from full text ⓘ

Using Danish and Swedish nationwide registers, the study nested case-control populations to compare associations of common ovarian cancer risk factors in women with a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer (2138 cases, 85,240 controls) versus those without (10,730 cases, 429,200 controls), using conditional logistic regression and fixed-effect combination of country estimates. The authors found that multiparity, hysterectomy, tubal ligation, salpingectomy, and oral contraceptive use were associated with reduced ovarian cancer risk in both groups, whereas endometriosis and menopausal hormone therapy were associated with increased risk; multiparity and OC effects were largely consistent across histologic subtypes, with no OC association for mucinous tumors. Menopausal hormone therapy increased risk of serous ovarian cancer but decreased risk of mucinous and clear cell cancers, and endometriosis showed particularly elevated associations with endometrioid and clear cell ovarian cancer. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it reports ovarian cancer risk factor associations with an emphasis on how endometriosis relates to specific ovarian cancer histologies in women with and without a family history.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Women with a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer have an increased ovarian cancer risk. Yet it remains uncertain if common ovarian cancer risk factors-especially those that are modifiable-affect this high-risk population similarly to the general population. METHODS: Using the Danish and Swedish nationwide registers, we established 2 nested case-control study populations in women with a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer (2138 ovarian cancers, 85 240 controls) and women without (10 730 ovarian cancers, 429 200 controls). The overall and histology-specific associations were assessed with conditional logistic regression. The country-specific estimates were combined based on a fixed-effect assumption. RESULTS: Multiparity, hysterectomy, tubal ligation, salpingectomy, and oral contraceptive (OC) use were associated with a reduced risk of ovarian cancer in women with and without a family history, while endometriosis and menopausal hormone therapy were associated with increased risk. Multiparity and OC use presented protective effects across all histologic subtypes except mucinous ovarian cancer, which was not associated with OC use. Menopausal hormone treatment increased the risk of serous ovarian cancer but decreased the risk of the mucinous and clear cell cancers. Endometriosis was especially related to an increased risk of endometrioid and clear cell ovarian cancer. CONCLUSION: Factors associated with a decreased ovarian cancer risk were similar between women with and without a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer. Given the higher baseline risk for women with a family history, special attention should be paid to risk factors like endometriosis and nulliparity in this high-risk population.
Full text 4,011 characters · extracted from oa-html · 7 sections · click to expand

Abstract

Background Women with a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer have an increased ovarian cancer risk. Yet it remains uncertain if common ovarian cancer risk factors—especially those that are modifiable—affect this high-risk population similarly to the general population.

Methods

Using the Danish and Swedish nationwide registers, we established 2 nested case-control study populations in women with a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer (2138 ovarian cancers, 85 240 controls) and women without (10 730 ovarian cancers, 429 200 controls). The overall and histology-specific associations were assessed with conditional logistic regression. The country-specific estimates were combined based on a fixed-effect assumption.

Results

Multiparity, hysterectomy, tubal ligation, salpingectomy, and oral contraceptive (OC) use were associated with a reduced risk of ovarian cancer in women with and without a family history, while endometriosis and menopausal hormone therapy were associated with increased risk. Multiparity and OC use presented protective effects across all histologic subtypes except mucinous ovarian cancer, which was not associated with OC use. Menopausal hormone treatment increased the risk of serous ovarian cancer but decreased the risk of the mucinous and clear cell cancers. Endometriosis was especially related to an increased risk of endometrioid and clear cell ovarian cancer.

Conclusion

Factors associated with a decreased ovarian cancer risk were similar between women with and without a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer. Given the higher baseline risk for women with a family history, special attention should be paid to risk factors like endometriosis and nulliparity in this high-risk population. Women with a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer have an increased ovarian cancer risk. Yet it remains uncertain if common ovarian cancer risk factors—especially those that are modifiable—affect this high-risk population similarly to the general population.

Methods

Using the Danish and Swedish nationwide registers, we established 2 nested case-control study populations in women with a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer (2138 ovarian cancers, 85 240 controls) and women without (10 730 ovarian cancers, 429 200 controls). The overall and histology-specific associations were assessed with conditional logistic regression. The country-specific estimates were combined based on a fixed-effect assumption.

Results

Multiparity, hysterectomy, tubal ligation, salpingectomy, and oral contraceptive (OC) use were associated with a reduced risk of ovarian cancer in women with and without a family history, while endometriosis and menopausal hormone therapy were associated with increased risk. Multiparity and OC use presented protective effects across all histologic subtypes except mucinous ovarian cancer, which was not associated with OC use. Menopausal hormone treatment increased the risk of serous ovarian cancer but decreased the risk of the mucinous and clear cell cancers. Endometriosis was especially related to an increased risk of endometrioid and clear cell ovarian cancer.

Conclusion

Factors associated with a decreased ovarian cancer risk were similar between women with and without a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer. Given the higher baseline risk for women with a family history, special attention should be paid to risk factors like endometriosis and nulliparity in this high-risk population. | Originalsprog | Engelsk | |---|---| | Tidsskrift | Journal of the National Cancer Institute | | Vol/bind | 116 | | Udgave nummer | 11 | | Sider (fra-til) | 1767-1774 | | Antal sider | 8 | | ISSN | 0027-8874 | | DOI | | | Status | Udgivet - 2024 | Bibliografisk note Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected]. Citationsformater - APA - Standard - Harvard - Vancouver - Author - BIBTEX - RIS

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

⚙ Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-html ⓘ

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Registries

Citation neighborhood (no data yet)

We don't have any in-corpus citations linked to this paper yet. This is a recent paper (2024) — citers typically take a year or two to land, and the OpenAlex reference graph may still be filling in.

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-18T06:15:08.409253+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-06-15T06:11:33.680399+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-05-14T19:30:52.867331+00:00
License: public-domain-us · commercial use OK · attribution required
Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine