There may be a link between preeclampsia and the risk of developing endometrial cancer, according to a study recently published in BJC Reports.
Preeclampsia occurs when a pregnant patient has high blood pressure, which raises the risk of complications for both the mother and child. Preeclampsia ends once the patient delivers their baby.
The study researchers wanted to determine if preeclampsia influences the risk of cancer later in life. This study utilized data from the Medical Birth Registries in both Sweden and Finland; these registries encompassed nearly all deliveries in both countries.
The data of a total of 2,33,283 women from Sweden and 1,014,749 women from Finland without cancer was accessed. Among them, 86,269 women from Sweden and 37,226 women from Finland had preeclampsia or eclampsia during their first pregnancy; this meant that there were 2,246,014 women from Sweden and 977,523 women from Finland who neither had preeclampsia nor eclampsia during their first pregnancy.
Read more about endometrial cancer signs and symptoms
Investigators found that there was a lower risk of any cancer among the Swedish cohort with preeclampsia during their first delivery. Among the Finnish cohort, the results did not reach statistical significance.
By analyzing the risk of individual cancer subtypes, the results between the two groups of patients were similar. Preeclampsia during the first pregnancy was associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer, cervical cancer and lung cancer. Notably, preeclampsia during the first pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of endometrial cancer by 28% to 46%.
“In conclusion, our study implicates that women with [preeclampsia] in their first pregnancy possess lower risk of breast, cervical, and lung cancer later in life,” the authors of the study concluded. “In contrast, the risk of endometrial cancer is increased after [preeclampsia].”
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