Cancer risk among women sterilized with transcervical quinacrine in Chile: an update through 1996.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether further follow-up of a cohort of Chilean women would demonstrate an increased risk of invasive cancer associated with quinacrine sterilization.

DESIGN

Cohort study. Cancer cases were evaluated using cohort analyses.

SETTING

Santiago and Valdivia, Chile.

SUBJECT(S): Fourteen hundred ninety-two women who received transcervical quinacrine pellets for contraceptive sterilization between 1977 and 1989.

METHOD(S): Interviews and reviews of medical records.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Age- and site-specific incidence of invasive cancers.

RESULT(S): During 13,444 person-years of follow-up, 25 invasive cancers were identified, including 8 new cases. This compares with 21.9 expected cancers, based on age-specific rates from the Cali, Colombia, cancer registry. Eight cases of cervical cancer were observed, compared with the 6.3 expected. Since the initial study's confirmation of a single case of leiomyosarcoma, no other noncervical uterine cancers have been diagnosed. The number of observed person-years gives an expectation of 0.62 noncervical uterine cancers. One case of ovarian cancer was diagnosed, compared with the 0.99 expected.

CONCLUSION(S): Rates of cancer among women exposed to intrauterine quinacrine are not significantly different from population-based rates.