Project 466696

Endometriosis affects roughly 1 million women in Canada, is a main cause of pelvic pain and infertility, and is associated with ovarian cancer development. It is a chronic, estrogen-dependent, inflammatory condition characterized by lesions resembling uterine endometrium found outside the uterus. The gold standard diagnosis is surgical visualization of the lesions, followed by excision or biopsy of the lesions, and pathological confirmation of endometrial tissue. Goal 1) To better understand the relationship between anatomy of endometriosis and risk of ovarian cancer in a historical cohort of people with pathologically confirmed endometriosis and details on the anatomy of the endometriosis, and 2) to better understand the relationship between treatment of endometriosis and risk of ovarian cancer. Methods We have captured and built a linkable dataset of all people with pathologically confirmed endometriosis from the pathology database in Vancouver Coastal Health Authority between January 1st, 2000 and December 31, 2008 (n=3561). These data have been linked with population-based administrative datasets, including: Health Services Data, BC Cancer Registry, Vital Statistics, and BC PharmaNet. Using these data, we will examine the relationship between hormonal management of endometriosis, comparing never users to those who treated their endometriosis with hormonal management, including more detailed sub-analyses based on type of medication and length of use. The specific trigger for the transition from benign endometriosis, to atypical endometriosis and cancer remains unclear. This work may help us improve our ovarian cancer risk stratification of endometriosis patients, as well as identifying possible opportunities for risk reduction of endometriosis associated cancer.