Depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) and risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. The WHO Collaborative Study of Neoplasia and Steroid Contraceptives.

The use of depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), a long-acting progestational contraceptive, in relation to risk of epithelial ovarian cancer was examined in a hospital-based case-control study conducted in Mexico and Thailand. Women with histologically confirmed epithelial ovarian cancer (n = 224) diagnosed between 1979 and 1988 were compared with hospital controls (n = 1,781) matched on age, hospital and year of interview. Overall, 9.8% of cases and 12.9% of controls had ever used DMPA. The relative-risk (RR) estimate in women who had ever used DMPA, controlling for the confounding effects of number of live births and oral contraceptive use, was 1.07 (95% CI 0.6, 1.8). No consistent patterns of increasing or decreasing risk were noted according to duration of use, time since first or most recent use or age at first use of DMPA. These results suggest that the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer is not altered by the use of DMPA.