To analyse the risk factors for different histologic types of ovarian cancer, we conducted a case-control study. The cases included 750 women with incident, histologically confirmed invasive epithelial ovarian cancer subdivided into: 493 serous, 81 mucinous, 78 endometrioid, and 98 other histologies. The controls included 2411 women admitted to the same hospitals as cases. The odds ratios for women with three or more births, in comparison with nulliparae, were 0.6 for serous, 0.4 for endometrioid, 1.0 for mucinous and 0.7 for other histological types of ovarian cancer. Family history of ovarian/breast cancer was associated to the risk of all ovarian cancer types, except mucinous ones. Selected dietary factors were less strongly directly (meat and starch), or inversely (fish and vitamin E) related to mucinous than to other histological types of ovarian cancer. High occupational physical activity was inversely related to the risk of ovarian cancer, with no heterogeneity across histologies. In conclusion, the association of reproductive factors and of selected dietary habits was weaker for mucinous ovarian cancer than for other histologic types.