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Endometrial cancer in relation to intra‐uterine device use
Author(s) -
Hill Deirdre A.,
Weiss Noel S.,
Voigt Lynda F.,
Beresford Shirley A.A.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19970127)70:3<278::aid-ijc5>3.0.co;2-u
Subject(s) - medicine , endometrial cancer , random digit dialing , gynecology , population , family planning , obstetrics , relative risk , cancer , demography , confidence interval , environmental health , research methodology , sociology
Data from a population‐based case‐control study were used to evaluate the risk of endometrial cancer among women who have used an intra‐uterine device (IUD). Incident cases were identified between 1985 and 1991 among women aged 45–74 years who were residents of one of 3 counties in Washington State. Controls were selected by random digit dialing, and both groups of subjects received an in‐person detailed interview. In this study population, women who had ever used an IUD were estimated to have a risk of endometrial cancer that was 0.61 times that of other women (95% CI 0.41–0.89). The reduction in cancer risk was not found to be dependent on duration of IUD use. There was a suggestion that women who had used intra‐uterine contraception relatively late in reproductive life experienced a greater reduction in risk than those whose use was more distant or at a younger age. The relative risk among the small number of women who were currently using an IUD was 0.49 (95% CI 0.12–2.80). These results apply to the use of inert and copper IUDs as there was no use of progestin‐releasing IUDs among women in the study population. The data from this and several other studies of the question support the hypothesis that use of an IUD has a favorable effect on the subsequent risk of endometrial cancer. The reason(s) for such a reduced risk is unclear. Int. J. Cancer , 70:278–281, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.