PLoS ONE: Multiple Miscarriages Are Associated with the Risk of Ovarian Cancer: Results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition

PLoS ONE: Multiple Miscarriages Are Associated with the Risk of Ovarian Cancer: Results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition

Study Population

EPIC is a prospective cohort study initiated in 1992 in 10 European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Between 1992 and 2000, a total of 519,978 men and women were recruited.......

Abstract (and full text)

While the risk of ovarian cancer clearly reduces with each full-term pregnancy, the effect of incomplete pregnancies is unclear. We investigated whether incomplete pregnancies (miscarriages and induced abortions) are associated with risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. This observational study was carried out in female participants of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). A total of 274,442 women were followed from 1992 until 2010......

Discussion 

In this large prospective cohort study, we observed a 2-fold increased risk of epithelial ovarian cancer among women with 4 of more miscarriages.
This is the first prospective study that investigated the association of multiple miscarriages with ovarian cancer. Most case-control studies only investigated ever versus never had a miscarriage and did not observe an association [5].......