Personal history of breast cancer as a significant risk factor for endometrial serous carcinoma in women aged 55 years old or younger

Abstract

A comparative study between endometrial serous carcinoma (ESC) and endometrial endometrioid carcinoma (EEC) was performed to determine whether a personal history of breast cancer is a risk factor for ESC in women aged ≤ 55 yr. Study subjects consisted of 348 women who were diagnosed with ESC and 830 comparison subjects who had EEC. Variables studied included age at diagnosis, a history of breast cancer, tamoxifen therapy, hormonal replacement therapy and smoking history. Overall, 19.4% of women with ESC had a history of breast cancer, which was significantly higher than that of 3% in comparison subjects. Among the study subjects, the incidence of a prior breast cancer was significantly higher in patients who were 55 yr of age or younger (41.5%) than those who were older than 55 yr (16%). The statistical significance of both of the aforementioned comparisons was independent of tamoxifen usage on multivariate analyses. The mean time interval between prior breast cancer and endometrial cancer was 92.5 mo (range 7-240 mo) in the study group and 79 mo (range 7-192 mo) in the comparison group. For the whole cohort and individual subgroups (ESC, EEC, ≤ 55 yr and >55 yr), a personal history of breast cancer did not adversely affect the patient outcomes, which was largely dependent on standard clinicopathologic parameters such as International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage, as has previously been demonstrated. These findings suggest that a personal history of breast cancer may be a significant risk factor for the development of ESC in women aged ≤ 55 yr. Further studies are needed to clarify the relationship between these two cancers in this age group and whether this increased risk is reflective of a genetic predisposition.