Study Reveals Taking Oral Contraceptive Pills Could Reduce Risk of Ovarian Cancer
The primary role of oral contraceptive pill is to prevent pregnancy but it could also help reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, according to new research from the University of South Australia. The findings are published in International journal of gynecological cancer.
Screening for risk factors of ovarian cancer using artificial intelligence, UniSA researchers found that the oral contraceptive pill reduced the risk of ovarian cancer by 26% among women who had ever used the Pill, and by 43% for women who had used the Pill after the age of 45.
The study also identified some biomarkers associated with ovarian cancer risk, including several characteristics of red blood cells and certain liver enzymes in the blood, with lower body weight and shorter stature associating with a lower risk of ovarian cancer.
Researchers also found that women who had given birth to two or more children had a 39% reduced risk of developing ovarian cancer compared to those who had not had children.
The study used artificial intelligence to assess the data of 221,732 females (aged 37-73 at baseline) in the UK Biobank.
“We included information from almost 3000 diverse characteristics related to health, medication use, diet and lifestyle, physical measures, metabolic, and hormonal factors, each measured at the start of the study,” Machine learning specialist, UniSA’s Dr Iqbal Madakkatel, says.
“It was particularly interesting that some blood measures – which were measured on average 12.6 years before diagnoses – were predictive of ovarian cancer risk, because it suggests we may be able to develop tests to identify women at risk at a very early stage.”
Reference: Madakkatel I, Lumsden AL, Mulugeta A, Mäenpää J, Oehler MK, Hyppönen E. Large-scale analysis to identify risk factors for ovarian cancer. Int J Gynecol Cancer. 2025 Jan 6:ijgc-2024-005424. doi: 10.1136/ijgc-2024-005424. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39084694.
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