Long-term impact of preeclampsia on maternal endometrial cancer risk

BACKGROUND: Endometrial cancer is mainly dependent on oestrogen exposure. Preeclampsia has shown to reduce oestrogen levels hence preeclampsia may affect later endometrial cancer risk. METHODS: We conducted a case–control study of 523 Danish women with endometrial cancer and 52 299controls during 1978–2010. The association between preeclampsia and later endometrial cancer was evaluated overall and according to preeclampsia onset and type of endometrial cancer in conditional logistic regression models. RESULTS: We observed no overall association between preeclampsia and endometrial cancer risk (OR=1.11 (95% CI 0.68–1.81)). This was true for all endometrial cancer subtypes. In an analysis of preeclampsia onset, however, we report a markedly increased risk of endometrial cancer following early-onset preeclampsia (OR=2.64 (95% CI 1.29–5.38)). CONCLUSIONS: Although we report no obvious association between preeclampsia and endometrial cancer, studying the subset of early-onset preeclampsia may prove fruitful in further understanding the aetiology of endometrial cancer.