A CASE-CONTROL STUDY OF ENDOMETRIAL CANCER IN RELATION TO REPRODUCTIVE, SOMATOMETRIC, AND LIFE-STYLE VARIABLES

A hospital-based case-control study of cancer of the endometrium was c onducted in Athens, Greece, from 1992 to 1994. The cases were 145 wome n residents of Greater Athens with histologically confirmed incident c ancer of the endometrium, operated in the two cancer hospitals of the Greater Athens area or the major University Department of Obstetrics a nd Gynecology. Controls were 298 women residents of Greater Athens hos pitalized for bone fractures or other orthopedic conditions in the acc ident hospital of Greater Athens. The data were analyzed by modeling t hrough multiple logistic regression. The risk of endometrial cancer de creased with the number of livebirths (p for trend <0.01), with early age at menopause (p = 0.03), and with later age at menarche (p = 0.11) , whereas miscarriages and induced abortions were clearly unrelated. T here were nonsignificant relations of disease risk with smoking (inver se), alcohol (inverse), and menopausal estrogens (positive), whereas o ral contraceptive use was too uncommon to allow meaningful study. The lower risk of the disease associated with current occupations requirin g manual activity (p = 0.03) and the lower, although not significantly so (p = 0.36), energy intake of cases in comparison to controls sugge st that physical inactivity could be an important risk factor for endo metrial cancer. Women with endometrial cancer were significantly talle r than control women (p = 0.02). The latter results indicate that exce ss energy intake in early life, leading to higher attained stature, an d excessive energy intake in later life, on account of physical inacti vity and leading to higher body weight, converge in increasing the ris k for endometrial cancer.