New findings on ovarian cancer
Considered to be a silent killer among cancers, ovarian cancer is one of the hardest cancers to diagnose. The symptoms are vague - things like abdominal pain and fatigue can be attributed to any number of less severe conditions, so ovarian cancer is often not caught until it is very advanced. With knowledge of risk factors, however, women and their doctors can be more vigilant in early detection, and with that, new findings have brought to light one risk factor in particular.
A new study at the U.S. National Cancer Institute has found that there is a relationship between obesity and ovarian cancer risk, according to a story on Yahoo! News. While obesity was previously thought to be an insignificant risk factor, new findings do find a correlation between weight and ovarian cancer occurrence. Researchers followed women between the ages of 50 and 71 over a period of 7 years and found that those who were obese were more likely to develop ovarian cancer. These results, however, were mitigated by the presence of another risk factor - hormone replacement therapy. Those who took hormone replacement therapy for menopause were not found to have a significant difference in occurrence based on weight. However, it was not just weight at the time of occurrence that was shown to have an effect - women who had been obese at the age of 18 were also shown to have an elevated risk, regardless of any changes in weight later in life.
While the reasons for this finding were not determined, it is speculated that the effects of weight on a woman’s estrogen levels play a part, although further research would be necessary to determine whether this is, in fact, the case.
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:33 am
Ovarian cancer is the most fatal of gynecologic malignancies and the symptoms are quite vague and can easily be mistaken for another disease. I have a friend who is fighting against ovarian cancer over 2 years. Women should be aware of the early symptoms of ovarian cancer and hope to hear there is progress for early diagnosis and eventually a cure. Important information about Ovarian Cancer Risk. Visit here to read and know.