Epidemiologic differences between women with colorectal cancer and women with ovarian cancer.

BACKGROUND AND

OBJECTIVES

The difference between the epidemiologic features of women with colorectal cancer and those with ovarian cancer has not been thoroughly studied. The aim of this study is to review the epidemiologic features of women with colorectal cancer and compare them with those of women with ovarian cancer.

METHODS

The epidemiologic features of 705 women with colorectal cancer were compared with those of 503 women with primary epithelial ovarian cancer. Both groups included all women with the confirmed respective histologic diagnoses admitted to Roswell Park Cancer Institute between 1982 and 1996 who returned a voluntary self-administered epidemiologic questionnaire.

RESULTS

Women with ovarian cancer were significantly younger, had higher education and income, had fewer children, and were more likely to have never been married and nulligravid than those with colorectal cancer. There was a significant difference in the contraceptive history between both groups among women > or = 45 years of age. More women with ovarian cancer had a family history of ovarian cancer and more women with colorectal cancer had a family history of colorectal cancer.

CONCLUSIONS

The epidemiologic features of women with colorectal cancer are different from those with ovarian cancer. The difference between both groups might indicate difference in the environmental or genetic etiology of both cancers.