{"doi":"10.1002/ijc.29834","title":"A prospective study of leisure‐time physical activity and risk of incident epithelial ovarian cancer: Impact by menopausal status","abstract":"<jats:p>Despite multiple hypotheses for a protective effect, epidemiologic findings are inconsistent regarding the association between physical activity and risk of ovarian cancer. Considering physical activity assessment at different times of life, including pre‐ and postmenopause, may be important for explaining these discrepancies. Therefore, we examined the risk of ovarian cancer according to total, premenopausal and postmenopausal physical activity among 85,462 women from the Nurses' Health Study and 112,679 women from the Nurses' Health Study II. Leisure‐time physical activity was prospectively assessed about every 2–4 years using validated questionnaires, and characterized as metabolic equivalent task hours per week (MET‐hr/week), which combines exercise duration and intensity. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for these associations. We identified 815 incident epithelial ovarian cancer cases during 24 years of follow‐up. A modestly increased ovarian cancer risk was observed for high levels of total cumulative average physical activity and a suggestively increased risk for low activity. Compared to 3–9 MET‐hr/week, HRs (95% CIs) were 1.26 (1.02, 1.55) for ≥27 MET‐hr/week (equivalent to 1 hr/day of brisk walking) and 1.19 (0.94, 1.52) for &lt;3 MET‐hr/week. This association was limited to premenopausal physical activity [comparable HR (95% CI) of 1.50 (1.13, 1.97) and 1.29 (0.95, 1.75), respectively]. Postmenopausal physical activity was not associated with risk. Our data do not support a protective role of physical activity for ovarian cancer. The increased risk associated with physical activity during premenopausal years and the underlying etiology require further investigation.</jats:p>","journal":"International Journal of Cancer","year":2016,"id":613979,"datarank":0.4887144807032224,"base_score":3.258096538021482,"endowment":3.258096538021482,"self_citation_contribution":0.4887144807032224,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.4887144807032224,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":25,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":104571,"name":"A. Heather Eliassen","orcid":"0000-0002-3961-6609","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":305538,"name":"Susan E. Hankinson","orcid":"0000-0001-9155-3767","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":323420,"name":"Olivia I. Okereke","orcid":"0000-0002-9523-2693","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":104604,"name":"Laura D. Kubzansky","orcid":"0000-0002-4039-2235","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":131778,"name":"Molin Wang","orcid":"0000-0003-1951-8961","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":484413,"name":"Elizabeth M. Poole","orcid":"0000-0002-4680-4587","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":104573,"name":"Jorge E. Chavarro","orcid":"0000-0002-4436-9630","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":317197,"name":"Shelley S. Tworoger","orcid":"0000-0002-6986-7046","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":17009,"name":"Tianyi Huang","orcid":"0000-0001-8420-9167","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"A prospective study of leisure‐time physical activity and risk of incident epithelial ovarian cancer: Impact by menopausal status","abstract":"<jats:p>Despite multiple hypotheses for a protective effect, epidemiologic findings are inconsistent regarding the association between physical activity and risk of ovarian cancer. Considering physical activity assessment at different times of life, including pre‐ and postmenopause, may be important for explaining these discrepancies. Therefore, we examined the risk of ovarian cancer according to total, premenopausal and postmenopausal physical activity among 85,462 women from the Nurses' Health Study and 112,679 women from the Nurses' Health Study II. Leisure‐time physical activity was prospectively assessed about every 2–4 years using validated questionnaires, and characterized as metabolic equivalent task hours per week (MET‐hr/week), which combines exercise duration and intensity. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for these associations. We identified 815 incident epithelial ovarian cancer cases during 24 years of follow‐up. A modestly increased ovarian cancer risk was observed for high levels of total cumulative average physical activity and a suggestively increased risk for low activity. Compared to 3–9 MET‐hr/week, HRs (95% CIs) were 1.26 (1.02, 1.55) for ≥27 MET‐hr/week (equivalent to 1 hr/day of brisk walking) and 1.19 (0.94, 1.52) for &lt;3 MET‐hr/week. This association was limited to premenopausal physical activity [comparable HR (95% CI) of 1.50 (1.13, 1.97) and 1.29 (0.95, 1.75), respectively]. Postmenopausal physical activity was not associated with risk. Our data do not support a protective role of physical activity for ovarian cancer. The increased risk associated with physical activity during premenopausal years and the underlying etiology require further investigation.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":3.258096538021482,"endowment":3.258096538021482,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"26335147","pmcid":"PMC4715531","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2101515468","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"National Institute of Health","grant_id":"UM1 CA186107, P01 CA87969, UM1 CA176726, R01 CA67262","title":null},{"funder_name":"NCI NIH HHS","grant_id":"P01 CA87969","title":null},{"funder_name":"NCI NIH HHS","grant_id":"UM1 CA176726","title":null},{"funder_name":"NCI NIH HHS","grant_id":"UM1 CA186107","title":null},{"funder_name":"NCI NIH HHS","grant_id":"P01 CA087969","title":null},{"funder_name":"NCI NIH HHS","grant_id":"R01 CA067262","title":null},{"funder_name":"NCI NIH HHS","grant_id":"R01 CA67262","title":null}],"total_grants":7,"fwci":1.4337,"citation_percentile":0.80859766,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2016,"count":4},{"year":2017,"count":2},{"year":2018,"count":2},{"year":2019,"count":5},{"year":2020,"count":1},{"year":2021,"count":4},{"year":2022,"count":1},{"year":2023,"count":2},{"year":2024,"count":1},{"year":2025,"count":2},{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"bronze","license":"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ijc.29834","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ijc.29834","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fijc.29834","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ijc.29834","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.29834","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26335147","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/4715531","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Physical Activity and Health","Cancer Risks and Factors","Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet"],"mesh_terms":["Carcinoma, Ovarian Epithelial","Adult","Female","Humans","Middle Aged","Motor Activity","Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial","Ovarian Neoplasms","Prospective Studies","Risk Factors","Incidence","Proportional Hazards Models","Premenopause","Postmenopause"],"keywords":["Medicine","Metabolic equivalent","Hazard ratio","Proportional hazards model","Prospective cohort study","Ovarian cancer","Confidence interval","Lower risk","Physical activity","Menopause","Nurses' Health Study","Internal medicine","Cancer","Relative risk","Gynecology","Oncology","Physical therapy","Ovulation","Menopausal Status","Luteal Progesterone"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-02T10:00:10.070765Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}