BMC Cancer 2008, 8:90 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/8/90 tions even when accounting for environmental influences that are considered important in disease risk determina- tion. The identification of genetic ovarian cancer risk modifiers remains to be accomplished. Competing interests The author(s) declare that they have no competing inter- ests. Authors' contributions AJ participated in the design of the study, carried out the molecular analyses and contributed to data acquisition and interpretation, drafting and revising the manuscript. JG, JM, BG, TH, TB were involved in data acquisition. AB performed the statistical analyses. JL contributed to con- ception and design and secured funding. RJS participated in conception, design, data interpretation and was involved in revising the manuscript. UH coordinated the study and participated in its design, data interpretation, drafting and revising the manuscript, and secured fund- ing. 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