‘No breast cancer from Pill’

Press, 30 August 1986, Page 16

‘No breast cancer from Pill’

NZPA-Reuter Boston

The largest study to date of possible links between oral contraceptives and breast cancer indicates that women who take birth control pills do not have a higher risk of breast cancer, medical researchers say. The nationwide study of 4711 women with breast cancer showed that the victims did not use birth control pills any more often than a survey of 4678 women without breast cancer. The scientists found that pill users who have

benign breast disease (which may eventually lead to cancer) have a lower rate of breast cancer than women with benign breast disease who never used oral contraceptives. The research team, led by Dr Richard Sattin, of the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, says it was unable to find any evidence that the risk of breast cancer is influenced by any one of the 30 different types of oral contraceptives a woman can take, how long she takes them, or when she last used them.

“Oral contraceptive use does not alter a woman’s risk of breast cancer,” they conclude in a report published in the “New England Journal of Medicine.” These findings, together with those from previous studies, offer some further reassurance about the safety of oral contraceptives.” Breast cancer has been a concern among users of birth control pills because doctors have known for years that hormones seem to play a role in breast tumours. About one in 13

American women are destined to have breast cancer. Although no link was found between the pill and breast cancer, Dr Samuel Shapiro, of the Boston University School of Medicine and School of Public Health, warns in an accompanying editorial that the new study was unable to evaluate the cancer risk of women who have been

off the pill more than 15 years, or to determine if the changing ingredients in oral contraceptives might influence a woman’s chances of developing a breast tumour. Although the pill is believed to sometimes cause high blood pressure and heart problems, most oral contraceptives have been shown to reduce the risk of cancers of the uterus and ovaries.