"Women who had applied talc powder to the lower abdomen and perineum for 3
months were 3.9 times at risk than those who did not."

________

nt J Epidemiol. 1992 Feb;21(1):23-9.    Related Articles, Links
Risk factors for epithelial ovarian cancer in Beijing, China.
Chen Y, Wu PC, Lang JH, Ge WJ, Hartge P, Brinton LA.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Peking Union Medical College,
Beijing, China.
A study in Beijing, China of 112 pathologically confirmed epithelial
ovarian cancer cases and 224 age-matched community controls enabled
evaluation of risk in relation to reproductive, medical, familial, and
selected lifestyle factors. An inverse relationship was observed between
the number of full-term pregnancies and ovarian cancer risk. Compared to
nulliparous women, subjects with one, two, or three full-term pregnancies
were at 50%, 70%, or 90% reduced risks, respectively (P for trend less
than 0.01). A positive correlation was found between the number of
ovulatory years and risk, with a 2.6-fold increased risk for women with 30
or more compared to less than 10 ovulatory years (P for trend less than
0.01). Infertility, as estimated in various ways, was also found to be an
important risk factor. When parity was taken into account, age at first
pregnancy was not related to ovarian cancer risk. No protective effect was
associated with mumps virus infection. In contrast, risk increased
significantly as serum mumps virus antibody titres increased (P for trend
less than 0.01). An elevated risk was found in women with a history of
long-term (greater than 3 months) application of talc-containing dusting
powder to the lower abdomen and perineum (Relative risk 3.9, 95%
confidence interval: 0.9-10.63). These findings suggest that Chinese women
have risk factors similar to those of occidental women.
PIP: Data for 112 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer were compared
with data for 224 age-matched community controls from the metropolitan
area of Beijing, China to determine the role of risk factors in a low
incidence area (5/100,000 in Shanghai, China compared with 12.9 in San
Francisco, California) and whether these factors vary with those found
elsewhere. Women who experienced 1, 2, and 3 full-term pregnancies had a
50%, 70%, and 90% reduced risk of ovarian cancer (p.01). Late age at 1st
pregnancy appeared to have a strong effect on ovarian cancer, but after
adjusting for parity and education its effect disappeared. Married
nulliparous women were 5.7 time more likely to develop ovarian cancer than
single nulliparous women (p=.01). Moreover married women who tried to
conceive for 12 months had a relative risk (RR) for ovarian cancer of 5.6
(p=.01). Women who had experienced =or+ 30 ovulatory years were 2.6 times
more likely to develop ovarian cancer than those who only experienced 10
years (p.01). Cases had significantly higher mumps antibody titers than
did the controls (RR=1.8 for antibody titer of 1: 20; RR=3.6 for 1: 40;
p.01) indicating that a mumps virus infection does not have a protective
effect against ovarian cancer as reported in another study. Women who had
applied talc powder to the lower abdomen and perineum for 3 months were
3.9 times at risk than those who did not. Women who used oral
contraceptives (OCs) for 1 year had a decreased risk of ovarian cancer
(RR=.7) and those who took OCs for 1-2 years and 3 years had an elevated
risk (RR=1.4 and 1.1, respectively), but the trend was not significant
(p=.75). The risk factors of ovarian cancer for Chinese women were
comparable to those of western women.

PMID: 1544753 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]