Thursday, 1 September 2016

Is there a link between ovarian cancer and hypodontia ?

A systematic review by Iavazzo and colleagues revealed a possible link between ovarian cancer and hypodontia although the research associated with this was very weak at best.

In total, 385 patients were included in this study. Control group was present in 3 out of 4 studies (340 patients). Hypodontia was present in 20%. Only in 2 out of 4 studies, the number of missing teeth was mentioned (47 teeth), while the majority of them were either maxillary second premolars or maxillary lateral incisors. 

Unilateral distribution of the missing teeth was present in 28 out of 46 patients, while bilateral distribution of the missing teeth was present in 18 out of 46 patients. The presence of ovarian cancer in the family medical history occurred in 12 out of 33 patients. Only 1 out of 4 studies examined the presence of genes with mutations in the included patients. Based on these findings, the lack of clinical studies was the principal obstacle to clarify the possible predictive value of hypodontia in the early prediction of patients with higher risk of ovarian cancer.