The pill and breast cancer: is there a connection?

ABSTRACT

PIP Experts remain unsure if using oral contraceptives increases the chances that a woman will contract breast cancer. Although early studies generally indicated that there was no connection between pill usage and breast cancer, 3 recent longterm reports suggest otherwise. The Fertility and Maternal Health Drugs Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration concluded that the new studies were inconclusive and recommended no changes to labeling of the pill. Known risk factors for breast cancer are a woman's age, menstrual history, reproductive experience, diet, benign breast disease, and family or personal history of breast cancer. In a reexamination of 1 of the studies, the risk of breast cancer was found to increase fourfold before age 54 for a subgroup of women--those who began menstruating before age 13, had no children, and had used the pill for more than 8 years. The 2nd study found that breast cancer risk by age 45 doubled for women using the pill for less than 10 years and quadrupled when used for at least 10 years. However, the overall risk did not increase according to length of pill usage. The 3rd study found a 200% increase in breast cancer among women aged 30-34 years who had previously used the pill, but no correlation in the overall results. Additional research following pill users over as long a period of time as possible should be undertaken. The National Cancer Institute will begin a 3-year study involving 2,000 American women in mid-1989 to examine roles of oral contraceptives, alcohol, and diet in breast cancer risk. It also will look at possible reasons for discrepancies found in the previous studies.^ieng