Pill not linked to breast cancer in middle age

Press, 7 September 1989, Page 10

Pill not linked to breast cancer in middle age

NZPA-Reuter Boston Use of an oral contraceptive did not pose a higher risk of breast cancer to women in their 40s and 50s, an article published this week says. But women who took the pill when younger would be the focus of an expanded study. The Harvard University study of more than 120,000 nurses between the ages of 30 and 55, published in the “Journal of the National Cancer Institute,” found no link between use of the pill and

breast cancer, even in cases where the contraceptive was taken for an extended period of time. Researchers said they would send out another 500,000 questionnaires to nurses aged 25 to 42 to determine the breast cancer risk associated with oral contraceptive use at a young age.

That question is still unanswered because women who may have taken the pill when young were only now reaching the age when breast cancer incidence is highest.