You can do your own Medline research at Emergency Medicine at NCEMI , if you wish. Enter DES and cancer, hit "Search Medline" then browse the abstracts.
Here's an abstract of one article:
Nurse Pract 1988 Nov;13(11):15-6, 19-20, 22 passim
Related Articles, Books, LinkOut
Identification and management of DES-exposed women.
Vieiralves-Wiltgen C, Engle VF. Llanfair Retirement Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Diethylstilbestrol (DES), a synthetic estrogen compound, was prescribed to many women with history of miscarriage between the years 1940 and 1971. As a result of prolonged use of DES in gynecological practice, an estimated 1 million to 1.5 million women were exposed prenatally, resulting in multiple upper and lower genital tract abnormalities. These anomalies may affect reproductive function and place women at greater risk for developing clear cell adenocarcinoma (peak incidence at age 19) and squamous cell carcinoma of the vagina and cervix (peak incidence at ages 35 to 40). Emphasis has been placed on screening for clear cell adenocarcinoma rather than squamous cell carcinoma and reproductive alterations. Despite the previous emphasis during the 1970s and a subsequent decline in public and practitioner awareness, women are at risk for the known effects of DES exposure until the year 2010. Greater effort must be made by practitioners to identify and screen for DES exposure in their practices, as well as to educate the public regarding the health risks posed by DES exposure so that affected women may be reached and receive care.
PMID: 3231355 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
The most recent study I found via your link (Hatch, et al) was dated 2001 and carried the disclaimer "although a role for more intensive screening among DES-exposed women in the production of this excess could not be completely ruled out". I read a newspaper summary of another study around the same time which specifically addressed this issue, and concluded that the slightly increased incidence was indeed attributable to the more intensive screening.
What I haven't ever seen addressed is the question of whether the underlying condition which resulted in women being prescribed DES might itself be associated with any increased cancer risk in their daughters -- all the studies seem to compare women whose mothers took DES with women whose mothers didn't, but there's never any mention of a control group for the mothers (i.e. women with a history of early miscarriage who took DES vs. women with the same history who didn't). They're always comparing the daughters of mothers with a known reproductive problem vs. daughters of a random group of mothers. It's almost surprising that there aren't some clear differences in the daughters' reproductive tract health (besides the structural abnormalities, which have been shown to be directly caused by DES), but maybe they're only really looking for cancer, since that angle was so heavily hyped back in the seventies.
Oddly, the stuff seems to have been found useful as a TREATMENT for some kinds of prostate cancer and breast cancer.
I resulted from the only one of my mother's 4 known pregnancies that didn't end in miscarriage, and it was also the only pregnancy during which she took DES. I sure ain't suing anybody for giving it to her. I don't even have any of the structural abnormalities.