Abstract
One of the greatest problems that patients and medical system confront worldwide nowadays is cancer. Even if there is a great focus on treatment improvement, it is equally or even more important to find cancer prevention pathways. If we concentrate on gynecological malignancies, we have as example cervical cancer which can now be prevented through vaccination, but less is known about prevention methods for endometrial and ovarian cancer. In 1992, Alice S. Whittemore first described the protective role of combined oral contraceptives (COC) use against ovarian cancer. After that, many other studies tried to find out how combined oral contraceptive use influence the risk of gynecological cancers. According to all researches, it is now known that COC are associated with risk reduction in ovarian and endometrial cancers. It was observed that their risk reduction depends on different factors such as length of use, the period of life when they were used, or some other associated risk factors. Moreover, it seems that they offer protection only against some histological types of endometrial and ovarian cancer. This review relates the most important findings regarding COC use and their risk reduction effect on ovarian and endometrial cancer in the recent studies. Even if some certain conclusions were made, such as time-dependent effect, more studies need to be conducted in order to have certain future recommendations.
Highlights
Combined oral contraceptives are in use for a long time
Along with this observation many other questions have arisen. Is this risk reduction effect dependent on the time the oral contraceptives were used, or does this benefit disappear after ceasing their administration? Might COC reduce the risk for other types of neoplasm? Does this benefit bring along some other risks? Is the risk reduction greater in patients having certain characteristics? Could COC be used as a means of prophylaxis in females with greater risk of ovarian or endometrial cancer? Is this benefit dependent on the type of oral contraceptive that is used? Is the impact different according to the histopathological type of the cancer? Are patients sufficiently informed about this benefit? This re
This study concluded that choosing oral contraceptive use, most women would not be exposed themselves to long-term cancer risk, but instead, many of them might gain some protection against endometrial and ovarian cancer [5]
Summary
It was observed that their use could have different benefits or on the contrary, certain disadvantages. What was important to be observed, is the way oral contraceptives influence the risk for different types of cancer. Studies concluded that oral contraceptives reduce the ovarian and endometrial cancer risk. Along with this observation many other questions have arisen. Is this risk reduction effect dependent on the time the oral contraceptives were used, or does this benefit disappear after ceasing their administration? Might COC reduce the risk for other types of neoplasm? Could COC be used as a means of prophylaxis in females with greater risk of ovarian or endometrial cancer? View aimed to find in literature answers for all these questions
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