Gestational Age and Fetal Growth in Relation to Maternal Ovarian Cancer Risk in a Swedish Cohort

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Abstract
Background: Pregnancy influences subsequent maternal ovarian cancer risk. To date, there is limited evidence whether two characteristics of pregnancy, gestational age and birth weight, could modify risk. Materials and Methods: We studied 1.1 million Swedish women who delivered singleton births between 1973 and 2001. Information on infant gestational age and birth weight was abstracted from the nationwide Swedish Birth Register. Women were followed prospectively through linkage with other population-based registers for occurrence of ovarian cancer, death, or emigration through 2001. Hazard ratios [relative risk (RR), 95% confidence interval (95% CI)] from Cox models were used to estimate associations between gestational age, birth weight, and epithelial ovarian cancer risk. Results: During 12.6 million person-years, 1,017 epithelial ovarian cancers occurred. Mean age at diagnosis was 43 years. Compared with women with term deliveries (≥40 weeks), women with moderately (35-36 weeks) or very (Pinteraction = 0.022). Conclusions: Our results lend further support that the hormonal milieu of a pregnancy may modify long-term risk of developing ovarian cancer. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007;16(9):1828–32)

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