Circulating androgens and postmenopausal ovarian cancer risk in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study.

ABSTRACT: Our knowledge of epidemiologic risk factors for ovarian cancer supports a role for androgens in the pathogenesis of this disease; however, few studies have examined associations between circulating androgens and ovarian cancer risk. Using highly sensitive LC-MS/MS assays, we evaluated associations between pre-diagnostic serum levels of 12 androgens, including novel androgen metabolites that reflect androgen activity in tissues, and ovarian cancer risk among postmenopausal women in a nested case-control study in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study (OS). We frequency-matched 169 ovarian cancer cases to 410 controls from women enrolled in WHI-OS who were not using menopausal hormones at enrollment/blood draw. We estimated associations overall and by subtype (n = 102 serous

SUBMITTER: Trabert B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6660427 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature