Publications by authors named "Holly R Harris"

Background: Adenomyosis can confer life-altering symptoms such as pelvic pain. Yet, the epidemiologic study of this uterine condition lags other gynaecologic conditions. This includes the investigation of intrauterine exposures that could disrupt foetal development and contribute to the presence of adenomyosis in adulthood.

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BACKGROUNDDespite an overall poor prognosis, about 15% of patients with advanced-stage tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) survive 10 or more years after standard treatment.METHODSWe evaluated the tumor microenvironment of this exceptional, understudied group using a large international cohort enriched for long-term survivors (LTS; 10+ years; n = 374) compared with mid-term (MTS; 5-7.99 years; n = 433) and short-term survivors (STS; 2-4.

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Background: Several studies have suggested an association between infertility and risk of endometrial cancer. However, most studies have evaluated this relationship in premenopausal people, yet the mean age of endometrial cancer is 60 years, after the average age of menopause.

Methods: Our study included Women's Health Initiative participants who self-reported whether they had a history of infertility.

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Purpose: Menopausal hormone therapy's influence on ovarian and endometrial cancers remains unsettled. Therefore, we assessed the long-term influence of conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) plus medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) and CEE-alone on ovarian and endometrial cancer incidence and mortality in the Women's Health Initiative randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials.

Materials And Methods: Postmenopausal women, age 50-79 years, were entered on two randomized clinical trials evaluating different menopausal hormone therapy regimens.

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Purpose: Long COVID-19 syndrome occurs in 10-20 % of people after a confirmed/probable SARS-COV-2 infection; new symptoms begin within three months of COVID-19 diagnosis and last > 8 weeks. Little is known about risk factors for long COVID, particularly in older people who are at greater risk of COVID complications.

Methods: Data are from Women's Health Initiative (WHI) postmenopausal women who completed COVID surveys that included questions on whether they had ever been diagnosed with COVID and length and nature of symptoms.

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Background: Tea and coffee are the most frequently consumed beverages in the world. Green tea in particular contains compounds with potential anti-cancer effects, but its association with survival after ovarian cancer is uncertain.

Methods: We investigated the associations between tea and coffee consumption before diagnosis and survival using data from 10 studies in the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate RB1 expression and survival across ovarian carcinoma histotypes and how co-occurrence of BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA) alterations and RB1 loss influences survival in tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC).

Experimental Design: RB1 protein expression was classified by immunohistochemistry in ovarian carcinomas of 7,436 patients from the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis consortium. We examined RB1 expression and germline BRCA status in a subset of 1,134 HGSC, and related genotype to overall survival (OS), tumor-infiltrating CD8+ lymphocytes, and transcriptomic subtypes.

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Article Synopsis
  • There hasn't been much research on whether being unable to get pregnant (infertility) affects the risk of getting colorectal cancer (a type of cancer in the colon).
  • The study looked at data from women who had been trying to get pregnant for a long time but couldn’t, and it found no link between infertility and getting colorectal cancer.
  • Overall, it seems that not being able to get pregnant doesn’t increase the chance of getting colorectal cancer in older women.
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  • The study examined risk factors for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) among women of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, including Asian, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and White participants.
  • Findings indicated that oral contraceptive (OC) use and childbirth (parity) were generally associated with lower EOC risk across all groups, especially in Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Asian women.
  • Significant differences in EOC risk factors were detected among the ethnic groups, suggesting that including more diverse populations in research could improve prevention strategies for ovarian cancer.
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Background: Although endometriosis is a common condition-affecting ∼10% of premenopausal individuals-its etiology is unknown. Diet receives a lot of attention from patients, but studies of the role of diet are limited. Examining dietary patterns is essential to provide new insight.

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Background: Nineteen genomic regions have been associated with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). We used data from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC), Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of (CIMBA), UK Biobank (UKBB), and FinnGen to identify novel HGSOC susceptibility loci and develop polygenic scores (PGS).

Methods: We analyzed >22 million variants for 398,238 women.

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Objective: Anti-Müllerian hormone is a reliable measure of ovarian reserve associated with menopause timing and fertility. Previous studies have observed that individuals with endometriosis have lower anti-Müllerian hormone levels than those without. However, sample sizes have been small and information is limited regarding the long-term influence of endometriosis on anti-Müllerian hormone levels among the general population, which may have important implications for menopause timing and chronic disease risk.

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Purpose: Although infertility (i.e., failure to conceive after ≥ 12 months of trying) is strongly correlated with established breast cancer risk factors (e.

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Background: Peritoneal fluid is a medium for endometriosis-associated biomarker discovery from which the local peritoneal environment and pathophysiologic pathways are often inferred. Therefore, we evaluated the associations between peritoneal fluid color and volume at time of endometriosis-related laparoscopic surgery with patient characteristics, endometriosis type and lesion location in adolescents and young adults with endometriosis.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis among 545 patients undergoing surgery for endometriosis who enrolled in the Women's Health Study: from Adolescence to Adulthood cohort study.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied a common genetic change that happens in a type of ovarian cancer called high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC), looking at how it affects patient survival.
  • They found that losing the RB1 protein was linked to longer survival in patients with HGSC, but it was the opposite for a different type of ovarian cancer called endometrioid cancer.
  • Patients with both RB1 loss and certain inherited genetic changes had much better survival rates compared to those with just one of these problems or none at all.
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Background: Most studies examining post-menopausal menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) use and ovarian cancer risk have focused on White women and few have included Black women.

Methods: We evaluated MHT use and ovarian cancer risk in Black (n = 800 cases, 1783 controls) and White women (n = 2710 cases, 8556 controls), using data from the Ovarian Cancer in Women of African Ancestry consortium. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association of MHT use with ovarian cancer risk, examining histotype, MHT type and duration of use.

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Generally, risk stratification models for cancer use effect estimates from risk/protective factor analyses that have not assessed potential interactions between these exposures. We have developed a 4-criterion framework for assessing interactions that includes statistical, qualitative, biological, and practical approaches. We present the application of this framework in an ovarian cancer setting because this is an important step in developing more accurate risk stratification models.

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Background: Although folate intake has not been associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer overall, studies of other cancer types have suggested that high folate intake may promote carcinogenesis in precancerous lesions. Women with endometriosis (a potential precancerous lesion) have an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer; however, whether high folate intake increases risk in this group is unknown.

Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis of six case-control studies from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium to investigate the association between folate intake and risk of ovarian cancer among women with and without self-reported endometriosis.

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Objective: To evaluate associations between endometriosis and uterine leiomyomas with ovarian cancer risk by race and the effect of hysterectomy on these associations.

Methods: We used data from four case-control studies and two case-control studies nested within prospective cohorts in the OCWAA (Ovarian Cancer in Women of African Ancestry) consortium. The study population included 3,124 Black participants and 5,458 White participants, of whom 1,008 Black participants and 2,237 White participants had ovarian cancer.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to investigate the relationship between p53 protein expression and survival rates in women with different types of ovarian cancer, particularly high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC), endometrioid carcinoma (EC), and clear cell carcinoma (CCC), using a large cohort from the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis (OTTA) consortium.
  • It was found that abnormal p53 expression patterns were prevalent in 93.4% of HGSC cases, but in EC and CCC, these abnormal patterns were linked to a significantly higher risk of death, indicating a poor prognosis.
  • The research concluded that while abnormal p53 expression doesn't affect survival in HGSC, it serves as a strong independent prognostic marker for EC and CCC,
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Endometriosis is a common condition associated with debilitating pelvic pain and infertility. A genome-wide association study meta-analysis, including 60,674 cases and 701,926 controls of European and East Asian descent, identified 42 genome-wide significant loci comprising 49 distinct association signals. Effect sizes were largest for stage 3/4 disease, driven by ovarian endometriosis.

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Importance: Frequent aspirin use is associated with reduced ovarian cancer risk, but it is unknown whether genetic factors modify this association. Understanding effect modifiers is important given that any use of aspirin for ovarian cancer chemoprevention will likely need to focus on specific higher-risk subgroups.

Objective: To evaluate whether the association between frequent aspirin use and ovarian cancer is modified by a polygenic score (PGS) for nonmucinous ovarian cancer.

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Objective: To investigate cannabis smoking and tobacco cigarette smoking in relation to adenomyosis risk.

Design: We used data from a case-control study of adenomyosis conducted among enrollees ages 18-59 years of an integrated health care system in Washington State. The case-control study used 2 control groups given the challenge of selecting noncases when cases are diagnosed by hysterectomy.

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