ASPO Abstracts
Hair Product Use and Ovarian Cancer Risk
Category: Molecular Epidemiology & Environment
Conference Year: 2021
Abstract Body:
Purpose. We evaluated whether hair products, including many known to contain carcinogens and endocrine
disrupting chemicals, are related to incident ovarian cancer in a large prospective cohort.
Methods. After excluding women with a history of ovarian cancer or bilateral oophorectomy, 40,559 Sister Study
participants were included. Participants were aged 35-74 and had a sister with breast cancer but no history of
breast cancer themselves at enrollment in 2003-2009. Participants completed questionnaires on frequency of hair
product use (including hair dyes, straighteners/relaxers and hair permanents/body waves) in the 12 months prior
to enrollment. Cox regression models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% Confidence
Intervals (CIs) for the association between hair product type and frequency of use in relation to incident ovarian
cancer. We also assessed models stratified by tumor type (serous, non-serous).
Results. After a mean of 10 years of follow-up, 241 women had self-reported an incident ovarian cancer diagnosis.
Ever use of hair products in the past year (including permanent, semi-permanent and temporary hair dyes,
straighteners/relaxers, and hair permanents/body waves) was not associated with a higher risk of ovarian cancer.
However, frequent use (>4 times) of straighteners/relaxers in the past year was positively associated with ovarian
cancer (HR=2.45, 95% CI: 1.27-4.73). This association was stronger for non-serous (HR=4.25, 95% CI: 1.07-16.9)
compared to serous (HR=1.38, 95% CI:0.47-4.04) ovarian cancers. Ever use of permanent hair dye was positively
associated with non-serous (HR=1.91, 95% CI 1.10-3.33), but inversely associated with serous (HR=0.65, 95% CI:
0.43-0.98) ovarian cancer (p-for-heterogeneity=0.002).
Conclusion. These results suggest that frequent use of hair straighteners/relaxers and possibly permanent hair
dye may be positively associated with the occurrence of non-serous ovarian cancers.
Keywords: ovarian, straighteners, dye