Benign and Malignant Outcomes in the Offspring of Females Exposed In Utero to Diethylstilbestrol (DES): An Update from the NCI Third Generation Study
This update examined cancers and benign conditions in offspring of women exposed to DES before birth. It found little evidence of increased overall cancer risk in the third generation so far. Estimates for borderline ovarian cancer and male overall cancer were imprecise, and participants remained relatively young.
Why it matters to adoptees: Helps adoptees and their children distinguish unresolved cancer questions from established prenatal-exposure risks without assuming that harm necessarily continues in every generation.
Limitations: Self-reported and mother-reported outcomes, rare diagnoses and wide confidence intervals limit conclusions. Absence of a clear increase so far is not proof of no later-life risk. Not an adoptee cohort; overlaps with the NCI programme and does not establish effects of post-birth lactation suppression.
- Research type
- Observational cohort study
- Source reviewed
- Abstract
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Age group
- Adults / Offspring across generations
Study context and review
Age group as recorded: Adults; offspring across generations
Adoption context: Medical evidence relevant to adoptees; not an adoptee sample
Programme: NCI DES Follow-up Study
Institutional context: Government / government-commissioned research
US National Cancer Institute collaborative research programme. Public research body; funding/commissioning details require study-specific review.
Scoped bibliographic and source review. Bibliographic relationships are not a bias or safety rating.
Topics: adoptee-relevant medical evidence, cancer, DES, diethylstilbestrol, medical history, multigenerational health
Review scope: PubMed abstract, author/conflict metadata and selected PMC methods/results; not a comprehensive full-text review.
Country as recorded: United States
- Funding
- PubMed lists NIEHS grant P30 ES027792; full funding statement and funder role not comprehensively reviewed.
- Commissioner
- Not yet checked
- Funder role
- Not yet checked
- Declared conflicts
- Michael Curry and Marianne Hyer employed by Information Management Services; remaining authors declared no conflicts.
- Recruitment
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Adoptee involvement
- Not established in material reviewed
Entry: study_a778e3b9db15ae40