A Nationwide Cohort Study on the risk of non‐gynecological cancers in women with surgically verified endometriosis

Liisu Saavalainen, Heini Lassus, Anna But, Aila Tiitinen, Päivi Härkki, Mika Gissler, Oskari Heikinheimo, Eero Pukkala, ­Eero Pukkala
International journal of cancer · 2018 · vol. 143(11) , pp. 2725–2731 · doi:10.1002/ijc.31721 · PMID:29981163 · W2877450570
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-06 ⓘ

This study analyzed surgically verified endometriosis cases and found no increased overall non-gynecological cancer risk, but identified increased risks for thyroid and basal cell carcinoma and decreased risks for mouth/pharynx and pancreatic cancers.

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Abstract

We assessed the association of surgically verified endometriosis and risk of non-gynecological cancers according to the type of endometriosis (i.e., ovarian, peritoneal and deep infiltrating endometriosis). All diagnoses of endometriosis combined with relevant procedural codes were identified from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register 1987-2012. Non-gynecological cancers diagnosed after the endometriosis diagnosis were obtained from the Finnish Cancer Registry. The cohort of 49,933 women with surgically verified endometriosis and the sub-cohorts of ovarian (n = 23,210), peritoneal (n = 20,187), and deep infiltrating (n = 2,372) endometriosis were analyzed separately. The endometriosis cohort contributed 838,685 person-years of follow-up and the Finnish female population served as the reference cohort. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was calculated for each cancer separately. The follow-up ended at emigration, death or on the 31st of December 2014. The non-gynecological cancer risk was not increased among women with endometriosis (SIR 1.03, 95%CI 0.98-1.08). Endometriosis was associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer in the entire cohort (SIR 1.43, 95%CI 1.23-1.64) and in the sub-cohorts of ovarian and peritoneal endometriosis. We found a decreased risk of mouth and pharynx cancer (SIR 0.60, 95%CI 0.41-0.80), and of pancreatic cancer (SIR 0.76, 95%CI 0.58-0.96). The incidence of basal cell carcinoma was elevated in the entire cohort (SIR 1.18, 95%CI 1.10-1.25) and in the sub-cohorts of ovarian and peritoneal endometriosis. In conclusion, women with surgically verified endometriosis have an altered risk of only few non-gynecological cancers.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosisdie_deep_infiltrating

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Neoplasms Adolescent Adult Child Cohort Studies Endometriosis Female Finland Humans Incidence Middle Aged Neoplasms Registries Risk Factors Young Adult

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Cited by (27)

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