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Association of Reproductive Factors, Oral Contraceptive Use and Selected Lifestyle Factors with the Risk of Ovarian Borderline Tumors: A Danish Case-control Study

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Abstract

Objective

The aim was to examine risk factors for ovarian borderline tumors overall, and according to histological subtype (serous vs. mucinous), in a large Danish population-based case-control study.

Methods

Ovarian borderline cases and controls were recruited from 1995 to 1999, and personal interviews were conducted. In all, 202 cases and 1,564 randomly selected controls were included. The analysis was performed using multiple logistic regression models.

Results

The risk of ovarian borderline disease decreased with increasing parity (OR=0.79 per birth, 95% CI: 0.63–0.98) and older age at first birth (OR=0.67 per 5 years, 95% CI: 0.53–0.84). Both a history of breastfeeding and use of oral contraceptives reduced the risk of borderline tumor, the effect being most pronounced for serous tumors. Increasing body mass index (BMI) was associated with elevated risk of serous borderline tumor (OR=1.05 per BMI unit; 95% CI: 1.00–1.10), whereas current smoking was a strong risk factor only for mucinous tumors (OR=2.10; 95% CI: 1.22–3.60). Finally, increasing consumption of milk (all types) was found to increase the risk of borderline disease (OR=1.04 per glass milk per week; 95% CI: 1.02–1.06), and increasing intake of total lactose also increased the risk significantly (OR=1.16 per 50 gram lactose per week; 95% CI: 1.06–1.26).

Conclusion

The risk profile of ovarian borderline tumors is similar to that of ovarian carcinomas, and we observed significant etiological differences between serous and mucinous borderline tumors.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the nurses and physicians from the departments of Gynecology and Pathology for their contribution, and to the interviewers for their great work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society/Rigshospitalet, Strandboulevarden 49, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lene Drasbek Huusom, Kirsten Frederiksen, Estrid V. S. Høgdall, Eva Glud & Susanne Krüger Kjær

  2. Department of Pathology Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lise Christensen

  3. The Gynecologic Clinic, The Juliane Marie Centre, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Claus K. Høgdall

  4. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Aarhus University Hospital Skejby, Aarhus, Denmark

    Jan Blaakaer

Authors
  1. Lene Drasbek Huusom
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  2. Kirsten Frederiksen
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Correspondence to Susanne Krüger Kjær.

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Huusom, L.D., Frederiksen, K., Høgdall, E.V.S. et al. Association of Reproductive Factors, Oral Contraceptive Use and Selected Lifestyle Factors with the Risk of Ovarian Borderline Tumors: A Danish Case-control Study. Cancer Causes Control 17, 821–829 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-006-0022-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-006-0022-x

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