Women treated with common fertility drugs do not have an increased risk of ovarian cancer, a new Danish study shows. These drugs, such as those marketed by Schering-Plough Corp. and Merck KGaA were not responsible for an increased ovarian cancer risk, even for women who had undergone 10 or more cycles of treatment.

 

For the study, researchers at the Danish Cancer Society in Copenhagen, led by Allan Jensen, evaluated the medical records of 52,362 women who suffered from infertility problems. The participants were followed for an average of 16 years after treatment.

 

During follow-up, invasive ovarian cancer was diagnosed in 193 women. The researchers found that compared to having never used fertility drugs, use of any of these four fertility drugs did not increase risk of cancer. 49 percent of the participants in the group who took these drugs had developed ovarian cancer, compared to 50 percent in the control group.

 

Penelope Webb, a research fellow at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia, described the findings as “reassuring,” adding that they provide further evidence that fertility drugs do not increase a woman's risk of ovarian cancer, no matter the extent of treatment.

The list of drugs included clomifene citrate (Clomid, Serophene); gonadotropins; human chorionic gonadotropin; and gonadotropin-releasing hormone.

The study was published in the British Medical Journal. The main limitation of the study was the relatively short duration of follow-up. The work was funded by the Danish Cancer Society.

 

Studies noted that high levels of two particular enzymes in ovarian cancer tissue might lead to a five times longer survival periods than for patients with lower levels of the enzymes. The two enzymes, dubbed Dicer and Drosha, are essential to microRNA interference used by cells to shut down certain genes, and women with high levels of both had an average ovarian cancer survival period of 11 years, as opposed to 2.6 years in those with low levels of both in general, and protein Dicer in particular.

 

At the same type, obesity was associated with cancer. Being overweight can increase a woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer by over 80 percent.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cancer killer of U.S. women and the leading killer among gynecologic malignancies.

More than 21,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year, according to statistics released by the American Cancer Society. Symptoms associated with ovarian cancer include abdominal pain, a feeling of fullness after a small meal, having trouble eating, and abdominal bloating.

According to the American Cancer Society, over 90% of women suffering from this type of cancer will prolong their lives with at least five years if the disease is detected at its earliest stage, when it can be still treated.