Oral contraceptive use and ovarian cancer risk among carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations

• Published in: British journal of cancer 2004-11, Vol.91 (11), p.1911-1915
• Main Authors: Whittemore, A S, Balise, R R, Pharoah, P D P, DiCioccio, R A, Oakley-Girvan, I, Ramus, S J, Daly, M, Usinowicz, M B, Garlinghouse-Jones, K, Ponder, B A J, Buys, S, Senie, R, Andrulis, I, John, E, Hopper, J L, Piver, M S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cancer Research; Case-Control Studies; Contraceptives, Oral - therapeutic use; Drug Resistance; Epidemiology; Female; Genes, BRCA1; Genes, BRCA2; Germ-Line Mutation - genetics; Heterozygote; Humans; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Molecular Medicine; Neoplasm Invasiveness - genetics; Neoplasm Invasiveness - prevention & control; Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial - genetics; Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial - prevention & control; Oncology; Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology; Ovarian cancer; Ovarian Neoplasms - genetics; Ovarian Neoplasms - prevention & control; Risk Factors; Tumors; Upper respiratory tract, upper alimentary tract, paranasal sinuses, salivary glands: diseases, semeiology
• ISSN: 0007-0920; 1532-1827
• DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6602239

Women with mutations of the genes BRCA1 or BRCA2 are at increased risk of ovarian cancer. Oral contraceptives protect against ovarian cancer in general, but it is not known whether they protect against the disease in carriers of these mutations. We obtained self-reported lifetime histories of oral contraceptive use from 451 women who carried mutations of BRCA1 or BRCA2. We used conditional logistic regression to estimate the odds ratios associated with oral contraceptive use, comparing the histories of 147 women with ovarian cancer (cases) to those of 304 women without ovarian cancer (controls) who were matched to cases on year of birth, country of residence and gene (BRCA1 vs BRCA2). Reference ages for controls had to exceed the ages at diagnosis of their matched cases. After adjusting for parity, the odds-ratio for ovarian cancer associated with use of oral contraceptives for at least 1 year was 0.85 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.53–1.36). The risk decreased by 5% (1–9%) with each year of use ( P for trend=0.01). Use for 6 or more years was associated with an odds-ratio of 0.62 (0.35–1.09). These data support the hypothesis that long-term oral contraceptive use reduces the risk of ovarian cancer among women who carry mutations of BRCA1 or BRCA2.