Longer-term aspirin use and subsequent ovarian cancer risk in the Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium

Lauren M Hurwitz¹, Katie M O'Brien², Mary K Townsend³, Brett M Reid⁴, Brooke L Fridley^{5

6

7}, Wenyi Fan⁵, Matthew B Schabath⁴, Clara Bodelon⁸, Andrew T Chan⁹, Renée T Fortner^{10

11}, Niclas Håkansson¹², Holly R Harris¹³, James V Lacey Jr¹⁴, Linda M Liao¹, Melissa A Merritt¹⁵, Alpa V Patel⁸, Jenny N Poynter¹⁶, Kim Robien¹⁷, Dale P Sandler², Nicolas Wentzensen¹, Alicja Wolk¹², Wei Zheng¹⁸, Shelley S Tworoger³, Britton Trabert^{19

20}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, 20850, United States.
² Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, United States.
³ Division of Oncological Sciences, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, Portland, OR, 97201, United States.
⁴ Department of Cancer Epidemiology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, FL, 33612, United States.
⁵ Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, FL, 33612, United States.
⁶ Division of Health Services and Outcomes Research, Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO, 64108, United States.
⁷ School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, 64108, United States.
⁸ Department of Population Science, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, 30303, United States.
⁹ Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 02114, United States.
¹⁰ Department of Research, Cancer Registry of Norway, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, 0379, Norway.
¹¹ Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, 69120, Germany.
¹² Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, 171 77, Sweden.
¹³ Program in Epidemiology, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States.
¹⁴ Department of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, 91010, United States.
¹⁵ The Daffodil Centre, The University of Sydney, a Joint Venture with Cancer Council New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2011, Australia.
¹⁶ Department of Pediatrics and Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, United States.
¹⁷ Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20052, United States.
¹⁸ Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, 37232, United States.
¹⁹ Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84132, United States.
²⁰ Cancer Control and Population Sciences Program, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, United States.

PMID: 41740062
DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyag019

Longer-term aspirin use and subsequent ovarian cancer risk in the Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium

Lauren M Hurwitz et al. Int J Epidemiol. 2026.

. 2026 Feb 18;55(2):dyag019.

doi: 10.1093/ije/dyag019.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, 20850, United States.
² Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, United States.
³ Division of Oncological Sciences, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, Portland, OR, 97201, United States.
⁴ Department of Cancer Epidemiology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, FL, 33612, United States.
⁵ Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, FL, 33612, United States.
⁶ Division of Health Services and Outcomes Research, Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO, 64108, United States.
⁷ School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, 64108, United States.
⁸ Department of Population Science, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, 30303, United States.
⁹ Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 02114, United States.
¹⁰ Department of Research, Cancer Registry of Norway, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, 0379, Norway.
¹¹ Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, 69120, Germany.
¹² Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, 171 77, Sweden.
¹³ Program in Epidemiology, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States.
¹⁴ Department of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, 91010, United States.
¹⁵ The Daffodil Centre, The University of Sydney, a Joint Venture with Cancer Council New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2011, Australia.
¹⁶ Department of Pediatrics and Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, United States.
¹⁷ Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20052, United States.
¹⁸ Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, 37232, United States.
¹⁹ Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84132, United States.
²⁰ Cancer Control and Population Sciences Program, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, United States.

PMID: 41740062
DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyag019

Abstract

Background: Observational studies have reported lower ovarian cancer risk among individuals taking aspirin frequently (i.e. daily/near daily). However, most studies relied on a single assessment of aspirin use, which may have led to misclassification and precluded the examination of patterns of use over time. We examined the association between aspirin use, assessed at multiple time points, and ovarian cancer risk.

Methods: Data were pooled from 10 prospective cohort studies from the Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium (n = 675 901 participants; 5528 cases; median follow-up = 13 years). Frequent aspirin use was self-reported via repeat questionnaires. We examined multiple time-updated, lagged aspirin-exposure metrics and risk of ovarian cancer by using pooled logistic regression adjusted for time-updated confounders.

Results: While ever frequent aspirin use was not associated with ovarian cancer [odds ratio (OR) 0.97; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.91-1.03], individuals who reported long-term use experienced a 14% reduction in ovarian cancer risk (>6 years; OR 0.86; 95% CI: 0.77-0.97). This risk reduction was evident among individuals with at least three ovarian cancer risk factors (OR 0.65; 95% CI: 0.50-0.85) but not among individuals with fewer than three ovarian cancer risk factors (OR 0.94; 95% CI: 0.82-1.08), P-interaction = .02). Reduced ovarian cancer risks were also observed for low-dose aspirin use (OR 0.90; 95% CI: 0.80-1.01 for ever low-dose use; OR 0.75; 95% CI: 0.56-0.99 for long-term low-dose use) but not ever regular-dose use (OR 1.09; 95% CI: 0.94-1.27).

Conclusion: Long-term use of aspirin, and particularly low-dose aspirin, is associated with lower ovarian cancer risk, especially among individuals with other established risk factors for ovarian cancer. Research should continue to explore the potential role of long-term, low-dose aspirin use for ovarian cancer primary prevention.

Keywords: aspirin; ovarian epithelial carcinoma; ovarian neoplasms; primary prevention.

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association 2026.

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Longer-term aspirin use and subsequent ovarian cancer risk in the Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium

Affiliations

Longer-term aspirin use and subsequent ovarian cancer risk in the Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources