The risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer may be increased in some women who experience early menopause, according to new findings presented by Welt et al at the Endocrine Society’s Annual Meeting & Exposition 2024.
Primary ovarian insufficiency is a condition that occurs when a woman’s ovaries cease working normally prior to the age of 40 years.
Study Methods and Results
Investigators hypothesized that some women with primary ovarian insufficiency and their relatives may be predisposed to reproductive- or hormone-related cancer types.
In the new study, the investigators used medical records from two health-care systems in Utah that serve 85% of the population to identify 613 women with primary ovarian insufficiency and 165 women who experienced early menopause from 1995 to 2021. They then used Utah Population Database genealogy information as well as the Utah Cancer Registry to determine the patients’ relatives and breast, ovarian, endometrial, colorectal, testicular, and prostate cancer diagnoses among all of the study participants.
The investigators discovered that women with early menopause had twofold the risk of developing breast cancer and nearly fourfold the risk of developing ovarian cancer. The risk of breast cancer and colorectal cancer were a respective 1.3 and 1.5 times higher among second-degree relatives such as aunts, uncles, grandparents, nieces, and nephews. Further, the risk of prostate cancer was increased by 1.3 to 1.6 times among first-, second-, and third-degree relatives.
Conclusions
“Women who have infertility from low egg numbers or experience early menopause should make sure they are regularly screened for breast cancer, especially if they have family members with cancer,” emphasized study author Corrine Welt, MD, Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes at the University of Utah Health. “[Physicians] who practice general medicine, gynecology, and fertility treatment should be aware that early menopause increases [the] risk for a number of diseases, and they should now be aware that breast cancer may be one of these diseases to watch for,” she concluded.
