Ovarian, Fallopian Tube, and Primary Peritoneal Cancer Prevention (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version

Changes to This Summary (01/04/2019)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Who Is at Risk?

Added text to include tall height as a risk factor for ovarian cancer.

Overview

Revised text to state that based on fair evidence, increases in height and body mass index are associated with a modest increased risk of ovarian cancer.

Description of the Evidence

Added text to state that ovarian cancer risk increases with increasing height and weight (cited Collaborative Group on Epidemiological Studies of Ovarian Cancer as reference 9). Also added text about the Collaborative Group on Epidemiological Studies of Ovarian Cancer who compiled individual data from 47 epidemiological studies that included 12,157 women with ovarian cancer and 81,311 controls.

Added text about a population-based case-control study of African American women in the United States that found an association between genital powder use and risk of epithelial ovarian cancer (cited Schildkraut et al. as reference 43).

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Screening and Prevention Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ® - NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.

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