Impact of analgesics on the risk of ovarian cancer; a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort and case-control studies

Introduction: Ovarian cancer is the sixth leading cancer-related mortality cause in women worldwide. Analgesics may hinder the occurrence of ovarian cancer through inflammation relief. The present study seeks to examine the relationship between analgesic consumption and ovarian cancer risk through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Materials and Methods: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane databases, and Google Scholar search engines were searched for works published by May 2023 using standard keywords to collect the required data sources. Acquired data were then analyzed in STATA version14, considering a significance level of P < 0.05 in statistical tests. Results: The present meta-analysis comprised 21 studies (14 case-control and 7 cohort studies) performed on 53,755 subjects. Results indicated that taking aspirin reduced the risk of ovarian cancer by 8% (OR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.87, 0.98), whereas other non-aspirin NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) did not significantly affect the ovarian cancer risk (OR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.81, 1.02). Similar results were observed in the case of ibuprofen and acetaminophen, with non-significant relationships between the risk of ovarian cancer and with the consumption of both acetaminophen (OR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.84, 1.08) and ibuprofen (OR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.50, 1.14). Furthermore, the duration of analgesic consumption was not significantly linked to the risk of ovarian cancer in the case of all studied drugs. Conclusion: Among aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and non-aspirin NSAIDs, only aspirin was found to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in women while the other studied drugs did not influence the studied risk. However, further research is recommended to confirm the results. Registration: This study has been compiled based on the PRISMA checklist, and its protocol was registered on the PROSPERO (CRD42023434730) and Research Registry (UIN: reviewregistry1668) websites.