You are seeing this message because your Web browser does not support basic Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing and what you can do to make your experience on this site better.


ABOUT JAMA
Advanced Search

Welcome   | My Account | E-mail Alerts | Access Rights | Sign In


  Vol. 280 No. 7, August 19, 1998 TABLE OF CONTENTS
  JAMA
  •  Online Features
  Original Contribution
 This Article
 •Full text
 •PDF
 •Send to a friend
 • Save in My Folder
 •Save to citation manager
 •Permissions
 Citing Articles
 •Citation map
 •Citing articles on HighWire
 •Citing articles on Web of Science (70)
 •Contact me when this article is cited
 Related Content
 •Similar articles in JAMA
 Topic Collections
 •Oncology
 •Oncology, Other
 •Alert me on articles by topic
 Social Bookmarking
  Add to CiteULike Add to Connotea Add to Del.icio.us Add to Digg Add to Reddit Add to Technorati Add to Twitter What's this?

Cancer Risk in Women Exposed to Diethylstilbestrol In Utero

Elizabeth E. Hatch, PhD; Julie R. Palmer, ScD; Linda Titus-Ernstoff, PhD; Kenneth L. Noller, MD; Raymond H. Kaufman, MD; Robert Mittendorf, MD, DrPh; Stanley J. Robboy, MD; Marianne Hyer, MS; Charise M. Cowan; Ervin Adam, MD; Theodore Colton, ScD; Patricia Hartge, ScD; Robert N. Hoover, MD, ScD

JAMA. 1998;280:630-634.

Context.— The association between in utero exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) and clear cell adenocarcinoma (CCA) of the vagina and cervix is well known, yet there has been no systematic study of DES-exposed daughters to determine whether they have an increased risk of other cancers. As many as 3 million women in the United States may have been exposed to DES in utero.

Objective.— To determine whether women exposed to DES in utero have a higher risk of cancer after an average of 16 years of follow-up.

Design.— A cohort study with mailed questionnaires and medical record review of reported cancer outcomes.

Participants.— A cohort of 4536 DES-exposed daughters (of whom 81% responded) and 1544 unexposed daughters (of whom 79% responded) who were first identified in the mid-1970s.

Main Outcome Measures.— Cancer incidence in DES-exposed daughters compared with population-based rates and compared with cancer incidence in unexposed daughters.

Results.— To date, DES-exposed daughters have not experienced an increased risk for all cancers (rate ratio, 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.58-1.56) or for individual cancer sites, except for CCA. Three cases of vaginal CCA occurred among the exposed daughters, resulting in a standardized incidence ratio of 40.7 (95% CI, 13.1-126.2) in comparison with population-based incidence rates. The rate ratio for breast cancer was 1.18 (95% CI, 0.56-2.49); adjustment for known risk factors did not alter this result.

Conclusions.— Thus far, DES-exposed daughters show no increased cancer risk, except for CCA. Nevertheless, because exposed daughters included in our study were, on average, only 38 years old at last follow-up, continued surveillance is warranted to determine whether any increases in cancer risk occur during the menopausal years.


From the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md (Drs Hatch, Hartge, and Hoover); Slone Epidemiology Unit, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Mass (Drs Palmer and Colton); Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH (Dr Titus-Ernstoff); Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester (Dr Noller); Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tex (Drs Kaufman and Adam); Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill (Dr Mittendorf and Ms Cowan); Departments of Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC (Dr Robboy); and Information Management Services, Rockville, Md (Ms Hyer).



Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Neuroscience, Molecular Biology, and the Childhood Roots of Health Disparities: Building a New Framework for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Shonkoff et al.
JAMA 2009;301:2252-2259.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Images, femininity and cancer: an analysis of an international patient education programme
Phillips
Health (London) 2009;13:67-85.
ABSTRACT  

The Association between In Utero Cigarette Smoke Exposure and Age at Menopause
Strohsnitter et al.
Am J Epidemiol 2008;167:727-733.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Pregnancy and the risk of breast cancer
Britt et al.
Endocr Relat Cancer 2007;14:907-933.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Neonatal Exposure to the Phytoestrogen Genistein Alters Mammary Gland Growth and Developmental Programming of Hormone Receptor Levels
Padilla-Banks et al.
Endocrinology 2006;147:4871-4882.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Age at Natural Menopause in Women Exposed to Diethylstilbestrol in Utero
Hatch et al.
Am J Epidemiol 2006;164:682-688.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Prenatal diethylstilbestrol exposure and risk of breast cancer.
Palmer et al.
Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 2006;15:1509-1514.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Menstrual and reproductive characteristics of women whose mothers were exposed in utero to diethylstilbestrol (DES)
Titus-Ernstoff et al.
Int J Epidemiol 2006;35:862-868.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Uncertainties for Endocrine Disrupters: Our View on Progress
Daston et al.
Toxicol Sci 2003;74:245-252.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Promotion, but not progression, effects of tamoxifen on uterine carcinogenesis in mice initiated with N-ethyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine
Takahashi et al.
Carcinogenesis 2002;23:1549-1555.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

In Utero Exposure to Bisphenol A Alters the Development and Tissue Organization of the Mouse Mammary Gland
Markey et al.
Biol. Reprod. 2001;65:1215-1223.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Cancer Risk in Men Exposed In Utero to Diethylstilbestrol
Strohsnitter et al.
JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst 2001;93:545-551.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Mice Heterozygous for a Brca1 or Brca2 Mutation Display Distinct Mammary Gland and Ovarian Phenotypes in Response to Diethylstilbestrol
Bennett et al.
Cancer Res. 2000;60:3461-3469.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Prevalence of Gynecologic Cancer in Women Exposed to Diethylstilbestrol in Utero
Verloop et al.
NEJM 2000;342:1838-1839.
FULL TEXT  





HOME | CURRENT ISSUE | PAST ISSUES | TOPIC COLLECTIONS | CME | SUBMIT | SUBSCRIBE | HELP
CONDITIONS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY | CONTACT US | SITE MAP
 
© 1998 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.