TY - JOUR
T1 - Pregnancy duration and endometrial cancer risk
T2 - Nationwide cohort study
AU - Husby, Anders
AU - Wohlfahrt, Jan
AU - Melbye, Mads
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - To explore the association between pregnancy duration and risk of endometrial cancer. Design Nationwide register based cohort study. Setting Denmark. Participants All Danish women born from 1935 to 2002. Main outcome measures Relative risk (incidence rate ratio) of endometrial cancer by pregnancy number, type, and duration, estimated using log-linear Poisson regression. Results Among 2 311 332 Danish women with 3 947 650 pregnancies, 6743 women developed endometrial cancer during 57 347 622 person years of follow-up. After adjustment for age, period, and socioeconomic factors, a first pregnancy was associated with a noticeably reduced risk of endometrial cancer, whether it ended in induced abortion (adjusted relative risk 0.53 (95% confidence interval 0.45 to 0.64) or childbirth (0.66, 0.61 to 0.72). Each subsequent pregnancy was associated with an additional reduction in risk, whether it ended in induced abortion (0.81, 0.77 to 0.86) or childbirth (0.86, 0.84 to 0.89). Duration of pregnancy, age at pregnancy, spontaneous abortions, obesity, maternal birth cohort, fecundity, and socioeconomic factors did not modify the results. Conclusions The risk of endometrial cancer is reduced regardless of whether a pregnancy ends shortly after conception or at 40 weeks of gestation. This reduction in risk could be explained by a biological process occurring within the first weeks of pregnancy, as pregnancies ending in induced abortions were associated with similar reductions in risk as pregnancies ending in childbirth.
AB - To explore the association between pregnancy duration and risk of endometrial cancer. Design Nationwide register based cohort study. Setting Denmark. Participants All Danish women born from 1935 to 2002. Main outcome measures Relative risk (incidence rate ratio) of endometrial cancer by pregnancy number, type, and duration, estimated using log-linear Poisson regression. Results Among 2 311 332 Danish women with 3 947 650 pregnancies, 6743 women developed endometrial cancer during 57 347 622 person years of follow-up. After adjustment for age, period, and socioeconomic factors, a first pregnancy was associated with a noticeably reduced risk of endometrial cancer, whether it ended in induced abortion (adjusted relative risk 0.53 (95% confidence interval 0.45 to 0.64) or childbirth (0.66, 0.61 to 0.72). Each subsequent pregnancy was associated with an additional reduction in risk, whether it ended in induced abortion (0.81, 0.77 to 0.86) or childbirth (0.86, 0.84 to 0.89). Duration of pregnancy, age at pregnancy, spontaneous abortions, obesity, maternal birth cohort, fecundity, and socioeconomic factors did not modify the results. Conclusions The risk of endometrial cancer is reduced regardless of whether a pregnancy ends shortly after conception or at 40 weeks of gestation. This reduction in risk could be explained by a biological process occurring within the first weeks of pregnancy, as pregnancies ending in induced abortions were associated with similar reductions in risk as pregnancies ending in childbirth.
U2 - 10.1136/bmj.l4693
DO - 10.1136/bmj.l4693
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 31412996
AN - SCOPUS:85070830671
SN - 0959-8146
VL - 366
JO - The BMJ
JF - The BMJ
M1 - 14693
ER -
