The review searched epidemiologic studies of environmental chemical exposures and ovarian or endometrial cancer incidence and mortality, finding 145 eligible studies, over half on ovarian cancer only and half conducted in North America. Outdoor air pollution and ultraviolet light were the most studied exposures. A meta-analysis of seven PM2.5 studies gave a pooled hazard ratio of 1.02 (95% CI 0.91–1.13) per 5 µg/m³ for ovarian cancer and 1.02 (95% CI 0.99–1.05) for endometrial cancer.
Why it is interesting: Air pollution is now a routine suspect in cancer aetiology, and for these two cancers the pooled evidence is close to null while endometrial incidence keeps rising unexplained.