Endometriosis and cancer: what do we know?

Joseph Nassif, J Nassif, S Mattar, Abubakar Musa, A Abu Musa, Assaad A. Eid, A Eid
Minerva ginecologica · 2013 · vol. 65(2) , pp. 167–79 · PMID:23598782 · W202437147
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 8 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-06 ⓘ

This review compares endometriosis and endometrioma to gynecological cancers, examining mutual causality, risk factors, histological distinctions, and molecular pathways to understand their association.

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Abstract

Endometriosis is the presence of endometriotic tissue outside of the uterus, composed of endometriotic glands and stroma. It affects between 10% to 12% of women in reproductive age. It presents with dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain, infertility, urinary or digestive symptoms. Diagnosis is based on clinical suspicion, clinical exam, pelvic ultrasound or pelvic magnetic resonance, and confirmed by laparoscopy with pathology studies. Its management is better understood nowadays. However, its association with neoplasia has been questioned for many years. It probably plays a role in the etiology of gynecological cancers, mainly ovarian neoplasia. In our review, we separately compared endometriosis and endometrioma to cancer, in terms of mutual causality, common risk factors, distinction based on histological findings, in addition to molecular and genetic pathways behind this association. This article reviews the English literature for studies on the association between endometriosis and gynecological cancers. Additional reports were collected by systematically reviewing all references from retrieved papers.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosisendometriomachronic_pelvic_paindysmenorrheadyspareuniainfertility

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Genital Diseases, Female Genital Neoplasms, Female Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Genital Diseases, Female Genital Diseases, Female Genital Neoplasms, Female Genital Neoplasms, Female Humans Ovarian Diseases Ovarian Diseases Ovarian Diseases Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms Ovarian Neoplasms

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

Cited by (8)

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