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Meta-Analysis
. 2015 Sep 16:5:14243.
doi: 10.1038/srep14243.

Parity and endometrial cancer risk: a meta-analysis of epidemiological studies

Qi-Jun Wu  1 , Yuan-Yuan Li  2 , Chao Tu  3 , Jingjing Zhu  4   5 , Ke-Qing Qian  3 , Tong-Bao Feng  3 , Changwei Li  6 , Lang Wu  7   5 , Xiao-Xin Ma  8
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Parity and endometrial cancer risk: a meta-analysis of epidemiological studies

Qi-Jun Wu et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The association between parity and endometrial cancer risk is inconsistent from observational studies. We aimed to quantitatively assess the relationship by summarizing all relevant epidemiological studies. PubMed (MEDLINE), Embase and Scopus were searched up to February 2015 for eligible case-control studies and prospective studies. Random-effects model was used to pool risk estimations. Ten prospective studies, 35 case-control studies and 1 pooled analysis of 10 cohort and 14 case-control studies including 69681 patients were identified. Pooled analysis revealed that there was a significant inverse association between parity and risk of endometrial cancer (relative risk (RR) for parous versus nulliparous: 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65-0.74; I(2) = 76.9%). By evaluating the number of parity, we identified that parity number of 1, 2 or 3 versus nulliparous demonstrated significant negative association (RR = 0.73, 95% CI 0.64-0.84, I(2) = 88.3%; RR = 0.62, 95% CI 0.53-0.74, I(2) = 92.1%; and RR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.65-0.70, I(2) = 20.0% respectively). The dose-response analysis suggested a nonlinear relationship between the number of parity and endometrial cancer risk. The RR decreased when the number of parity increased. This meta-analysis suggests that parity may be associated with a decreased risk of endometrial cancer. Further studies are warranted to replicate our findings.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flow chart for selection of eligible studies.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Forest plot (random effects model) of parity (parous vs. nulliparous) and endometrial cancer risk.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Nonlinear dose-response relationship between number of parity and endometrial cancer risk.
The solid line represents the estimated relationship. The dashed line represents the 95% confidence interval of the estimated relationship.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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