IS DIABETES-MELLITUS A RISK FACTOR FOR OVARIAN-CANCER - A CASE-CONTROL STUDY IN UTAH AND WASHINGTON (UNITED-STATES)

Insulin resistance characterizes non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM ), Insulin resistance may coexist in clinical syndromes with hyperestr ogenism and hyperandrogenism, suggesting that the ovary may be sensiti ve to effects of insulin. In addition, insulin-like growth factor-I re ceptors, which are capable of binding insulin, have been identified in ovarian cancer tissue and are proposed to regulate cell growth. We ev aluated the association between a history of diabetes mellitus and ova rian cancer in a case-control study in seven counties in Washington an d in Utah (United States) during the years 1975-87. Cases included wom en newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer over a five-year period who wer e identified through population-based cancer reporting. Controls simil ar to cases with regard to age and county of residence were identified via household surveys or random digit dialing. The study included 595 cases and 1,587 controls, Twenty-seven cases (4.5 percent) and 72 con trols (4.5 percent) reported a history of diabetes. Logistic regressio n analysis of the association between diabetes and ovarian cancer cont rolling for age, body mass index, and race resulted in an odds ratio ( OR) of 0.9 (95 percent confidence interval [CI] = 0.6-1.5), The OR was not changed with further controlling for prior oral contraceptive use or prior pregnancy, None of the 20 women with nonepithelial tumors (1 5 of which were stromal tumors) had a history of diabetes (upper CI = 4.0), These results, together with findings of two earlier cohort stud ies, do not support the hypothesis that diabetes is a risk factor for epithelial ovarian cancer.