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Chapter 20 - Cancer and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2022

By
Paul Hardiman
Edited by
Gabor T. Kovacs ,
Bart Fauser  and
Richard S. Legro
Gabor T. Kovacs
Affiliation:
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Bart Fauser
Affiliation:
University Medical Center, Utrecht, Netherlands
Richard S. Legro
Affiliation:
Penn State Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA
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Summary

The possibility that women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) could be at increased risk of cancer was first suggested 14 years after the description of the syndrome by Stein and Leventhal in 1935.[1] This report was related to endometrial cancer, an association that could have some basis, at least in women with anovulatory PCOS, who are exposed to estrogen unopposed by progesterone, which when used as menopausal therapy was shown to increase the risk of endometrial cancer.[2] Based on the same mechanism, there could theoretically be an association between PCOS and cancers of breast and ovary.

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Chapter
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Polycystic Ovary Syndrome , pp. 189 - 200
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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