(April 1, 2015) A study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention looks at ovarian cancer risk in the general population. In U.S. women, lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1.37%, but some women are at a substantially lower or higher ovarian cancer risk due to both genetic and lifestyle factors. Leigh Pierce, PhD and colleagues characterized the distribution of lifetime ovarian cancer risk in the U.S. general population and report that the lifetime risk estimates range from 0.35% to 8.78%. This work demonstrates that there are indeed women in the general U.S. population who have a much higher than average lifetime risk of ovarian cancer. As effective ovarian cancer screening becomes available, this report indicates that women with higher than average ovarian cancer risk can be identified and closely monitored.
Read the abstract here.
