ABSTRACT
Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have been reported to be at increased risk of a number of gynecological neoplasias, including endometrial, breast, and ovarian cancer. The data supporting an increased risk is almost entirely inferential, based primarily on small case series or shared risk factors. The level of evidence supporting an association between diabetes and cardiovascular disease with PCOS, for example, is much stronger (flawed as it is), than that linking women with PCOS with gynecological disease (see Chapter 8). One of the difficulties in exploring the association between these cancers and PCOS, is that they remain primarily diseases of postmenopausal women and present long after PCOS has faded. Only a fraction of cancer cases present in pre-menopausal women, where a concurrent diagnosis of PCOS may exist.
