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3. Other substances
No study was found on chemical substances other than
organochlorine compounds.
[Discussion]
Considering that the results of the three cohort studies on DES
do not agree with each other, and that the newest study in the
largest scale did not find risk increase, DES is probably not a
risk factor for ovarian cancer.
Chemicals other than DES are scarcely studied in relation to
ovarian cancer. No cohort study exists, nor any study on the
important persistent organochlorine compounds such as PCB, DDT,
HCH or HCB. It was therefore impossible to estimate the causal
relationship between those substances and cancer risk.
Practically no report was found on correlation with agriculture
or other professions in which exposure to pesticides is likely.
In this case there may be studies unpublished because of
negative results.
An Italian case-control study does suggest, however,
relationships between pesticides or some herbicides with ovarian
cancer risk, indicating room for studies on organochlorine
compounds and other substances. No report included studies on
Japanese subjects. Considering genetic and environmental
differences, e.g. diet containing more isoflavones, studies on
Japanese subjects should be promoted.
[Conclusions]
Literature survey on epidemiologic studies on endocrine
disruptors and ovarian cancer scarcely provided relevant
information. Disagreement of cohort study results suggested that
DES does not represent ovarian cancer risk. Effects of
substances other than DES and organochlorine compounds are
hardly studied and the causal relationship between the
substances and breast cancer cannot be estimated adequately.
Experimental designs with high reliability are needed for future
studies on this problem.
[Literature]
Table 2.3.1: Cohort studies on the relationship of endocrine disruptors with ovarian cancer
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