Brieger KK, Phung MT, Mukherjee B, et al. - In view of studies suggesting correlation of inflammation with ovarian cancer survival, researchers herein sought for inflammation-related factors that are associated with ovarian cancer survival and examined their combined effects.

• Data from 8,147 women with invasive epithelial ovarian cancer were retrieved from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium.

• Alcohol use, aspirin use, other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use, body mass index, environmental tobacco smoke exposure, history of pelvic inflammatory disease, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and endometriosis, menopausal hormone therapy use, physical inactivity, smoking status, and talc use, were included as pre diagnosis inflammatory-related exposures of interest.

• Researchers determined the relationship between each exposure and survival in 50% of the data using Cox proportional hazards (PH) models.

• Following development of a weighted inflammation-related risk score (IRRS), its correlation with survival was determined using Cox PH models in the remaining 50% of the data.

• Findings revealed a correlation of higher pre diagnosis IRRS with increased mortality risk after an ovarian cancer diagnosis.

• A 31% higher death rate was recorded for women in the upper quartile of the IRRS vs those in the lowest quartile.

• As many of the pre and post diagnosis exposures are modifiable, the development and implementation of behavioral recommendations may aid in enhancing survival among ovarian cancer patients.