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Reproductive Factors and Cancer Risk

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Cancer Prevention: The Causes and Prevention of Cancer

Part of the book series: Cancer Prevention-Cancer Causes ((CPCC,volume 1))

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Summary Points

  • Late age at first birth, early age at menarche, late age at menopause, and nulliparity are each associated with an increase in breast cancer risk.

  • Nulliparity increases the risk of ovarian cancer, while tubal ligation has been found to decrease risk.

  • Although less well studied, nulliparity and late age at menopause appear to increase the risk of endometrial cancer.

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Suggested Further Reading

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  3. Whittemore AS, Harris R, Itnyre J, and the Collaborative Ovarian Cancer Group (1992) Characteristics relating to ovarian cancer risk: collaborative analysis of 12 US case-control studies. IV. The pathogenesis of epithelial ovarian cancer. Am J Epidemiol 136: 1212–1220.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Charming Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

    Stacey A. Missmer M.Sc. & Susan E. Hankinson Sc.D.

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA

    Stacey A. Missmer M.Sc. & Susan E. Hankinson Sc.D.

Authors
  1. Stacey A. Missmer M.Sc.
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  2. Susan E. Hankinson Sc.D.
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Graham A. Colditz M.D.

  2. The Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention, Boston, MA, USA

    David Hunter M.B., B.S., Sc.D.

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© 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Missmer, S.A., Hankinson, S.E. (2000). Reproductive Factors and Cancer Risk. In: Colditz, G.A., Hunter, D. (eds) Cancer Prevention: The Causes and Prevention of Cancer. Cancer Prevention-Cancer Causes, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47523-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47523-5_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-6603-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-306-47523-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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