Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium

OBJECTIVE: The presence of macroscopic residual disease after primary cytoreductive surgery (PCS) is an important factor influencing survival for patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC). More research is needed to identify fac…

Candidate causal risk variants from genome-wide association studies reside almost exclusively in noncoding regions of the genome and innovative approaches are necessary to understand their biological function. Multi-marker analysis of genom…

BACKGROUND: There is suggestive evidence that inflammation is related to ovarian cancer survival. However, more research is needed to identify inflammation-related factors that are associated with ovarian cancer survival and to determine th…

BACKGROUND: Combined oral contraceptive use is associated with a decreased risk of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer (ovarian cancer). There is suggestive evidence of an inverse association between progestin-only contraceptive use and ovar…

BACKGROUND: Menopausal estrogen-alone therapy is a risk factor for endometrial and ovarian cancers. When a progestin is included with the estrogen daily (continuous estrogen-progestin combined therapy), there is no increased risk of endomet…

Quantifying the functional effects of complex disease risk variants can provide insights into mechanisms underlying disease biology. Genome-wide association studies have identified 39 regions associated with risk of epithelial ovarian cance…

Genome-wide association studies have identified 40 ovarian cancer risk loci. However, the mechanisms underlying these associations remain elusive. In this study, we conducted a two-pronged approach to identify candidate causal SNPs and asse…

PURPOSE: Previous epidemiologic studies have shown that smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity are associated with poor survival following a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Yet, the combined relationship of these unfavorable lifestyle facto…

There have been recent proposals advocating the use of additive gene-environment interaction instead of the widely used multiplicative scale, as a more relevant public health measure. Using gene-environment independence enhances statistical…

Background: Comorbidities can affect survival of ovarian cancer patients by influencing treatment efficacy. However, little evidence exists on the association between individual concurrent comorbidities and prognosis in ovarian cancer patie…

Menopausal estrogen-alone therapy (ET) is a well-established risk factor for serous and endometrioid ovarian cancer. Genetics also plays a role in ovarian cancer, which is partly attributable to 18 confirmed ovarian cancer susceptibility lo…

OBJECTIVE: To describe the association between postmenopausal estrogen-only therapy use and risk of ovarian carcinoma, specifically with regard to disease histotype and duration and timing of use. METHODS: We conducted a pooled analysis of…

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether endometriosis-associated genetic variation affects risk of ovarian cancer. DESIGN: Pooled genetic analysis. SETTING: University hospital. PATIENT(S): Genetic data from 46,176 participants (15,361 ovarian ca…

BACKGROUND: Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynecological malignancy, responsible for 13 000 deaths per year in the United States. Risk prediction based on identifying germline mutations in ovarian cancer susceptibility g…

BACKGROUND: Regular aspirin use is associated with reduced risk of several malignancies. Epidemiologic studies analyzing aspirin, nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), and acetaminophen use and ovarian cancer risk have bee…

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a heterogeneous cancer with both genetic and environmental risk factors. Variants influencing the risk of developing the less-common EOC subtypes have not been fully investigated. We performed a genome-wid…

PURPOSE: The majority of previous studies have observed an increased risk of mucinous ovarian tumors associated with cigarette smoking, but the association with other histological types is unclear. In a large pooled analysis, we examined th…

BACKGROUND: There are several well-established environmental risk factors for ovarian cancer, and recent genome-wide association studies have also identified six variants that influence disease risk. However, the interplay between such risk…

Genital powder use has been associated with risk of epithelial ovarian cancer in some, but not all, epidemiologic investigations, possibly reflecting the carcinogenic effects of talc particles found in most of these products. Whether risk i…

Whilst previous studies have reported that higher BMI increases a woman's risk of developing ovarian cancer, associations for the different histological subtypes have not been well defined. As the prevalence of obesity has increased dramati…

BACKGROUND: Studies evaluating the association between alcohol intake and ovarian carcinoma (OC) are inconsistent. Because OC and ovarian borderline tumor histologic types differ genetically, molecularly and clinically, large numbers are ne…

BACKGROUND: Tubal ligation is a protective factor for ovarian cancer, but it is unknown whether this protection extends to all invasive histological subtypes or borderline tumors. We undertook an international collaborative study to examine…

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis is a risk factor for epithelial ovarian cancer; however, whether this risk extends to all invasive histological subtypes or borderline tumours is not clear. We undertook an international collaborative study to asse…

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between self-reported endometriosis and the putative functional promoter +331C/T single nucleotide polymorphism and the PROGINS allele. DESIGN: Control subjects from ovarian cancer case-control stu…

Over 22,000 cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed in 2007 in the United States, but only a fraction of them can be attributed to mutations in highly penetrant genes such as BRCA1. To determine whether low-penetrance genetic variants contri…