Reproductive factors and risk of melanoma: a population‐based cohort study

Summary

Background

The association between reproductive factors and risk of cutaneous melanoma (CM) is unclear. We investigated this issue in the Norwegian Women and Cancer (NOWAC) cohort study.

Objectives

To examine the association between the reproductive factors age at menarche, menstrual cycle length, parity, age at first and last birth, menopausal status, breastfeeding duration and length of ovulatory life and CM risk, overall and by histological subtypes and anatomical site

Methods

We followed 165,712 women aged 30‐75 at inclusion from 1991‐2007 to the end of 2015. Multivariable Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Results

The mean age at cohort enrolment was 49 years. During a median follow‐up of 18 years, 1,347 CM cases were identified. No reproductive factors were clearly associated with CM risk. When stratifying by histological subtype we observed significant heterogeneity (p = 0.01) in the effect of length of ovulatory life on the risk of superficial spreading melanoma (HR 1.02, 95% CI 1.01‐1.04 per year increase) and nodular melanoma (HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.94‐1.01 per year increase). When stratifying by anatomical site, menopausal status (HR 0.54, 95% CI 0.31‐0.92, postmenopausal compared to premenopausal) and menstrual cycle length (HR 1.07, 95% CI 1.01‐1.13, per day increase) were associated with CM of the trunk, and significant heterogeneity between anatomical sites was observed for menopausal status (p = 0.04).

Conclusions

In this large population‐based Norwegian cohort study, we did not find convincing evidence of an association between reproductive factors and risk of CM.

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