Abstract

Numerous epidemiological studies examining the etiology of ovarian cancer and the role of pregnancy related factors in ovarian cancer has been one of the topics of interest to many researchers. Various articles have only mentioned the link between some risk factors and ovarian cancer, but no study has addressed the various dimensions of this issue to this day. Therefore, due to the important position of ovarian cancer among gynecological cancers, this study was conducted to investigate the pregnancy-related risk factors for ovarian cancer. To determine the relationship between pregnancy characteristic and ovarian cancer, a comprehensive search was carried out in English databases such as; Medline, Web of Science Core Collection, and Scopus using keywords; pregnancy, ovarian cancer (or 'carcinoma of the ovary' or 'ovarian neoplasm' or 'ovarian tumor'), risk factor, pregnancy characteristic terms and a combination of these terms. Full-text, English language, and original articles were included in this study. In total, 35 articles were entered into the study. The relationship between pregnancy related factors and ovarian cancer were studied. Although there was a weak association between some factors such as preterm birth and the risk of ovarian cancer, only the strong protective effect of parity was seen in the articles. The results of this study did not show that pregnancy related factors increase the risk of ovarian cancer. In summary, the findings are inadequate regarding some risk factors such as gender of fetus, multiple pregnancy, placental and fetal weight, parity, miscarriage, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes, and raised questions for future research.