Endometriosis tied to fourfold higher ovarian cancer risk in study of almost 500,000 women
Women with severe endometriosis could benefit from targeted screening, researchers say.
Endometriosis is linked to a more than fourfold higher risk of ovarian cancer, suggests a US population-based study of nearly half a million women.
Researchers identified an even higher cancer risk, almost 10-fold, in women with more severe disease subtypes, such as deep infiltrating endometriosis and ovarian endometriomas.
“[These women] may benefit from counselling regarding ovarian cancer risk … and could be an important population for targeted screening and prevention studies,” said the University of Utah–led team.
Using health records from a statewide database, they looked at 79,000 women with endometriosis (a mean age at diagnosis of 36) and 372,000 age-matched controls, followed for an average of 12 years post-diagnosis.
