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DOES ORAL CONTRACEPTIVE USE PROMOTE BREAST CANCER?

(February 2001)

According to an article in the October 11, 2000 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association, oral contraceptive use does increase the risk of breast cancer in families in which sisters and daughters of the patient with breast cancer also developed breast cancer (but not among granddaughters and nieces). Among those sisters and daughters who used oral contraceptives, there was a threefold increased risk of developing breast cancer. Average length of oral contraceptive use was seven years.

But:

1. The increased risk applied only to women using oral contraceptives prior to 1975 when the amount of hormone in the oral contraceptive was much higher.

2. There was no evidence that oral contraceptive use after 1975 posed any such danger to these high risk families.

3. Other investigators have not found a greater frequency of breast cancer in high risk families among oral contraceptive users.

4. Less than 10 percent of breast cancer cases occurs in these high risk families, most of whom will have genetic abnormalities (called BRCA1, BRCA2).

So:

1. The study applies only to high risk families, most of whom have genetic predisposition to breast cancer.

2. It does not apply to oral contraceptive use in the year 2000 or 2001.

There is, at present, no persuasive evidence that, when a woman buys and uses oral contraceptives with the hormone dosages used today, she is at any increased risk of breast cancer.

Grabrick, D.M., et al. Risk of breast cancer with oral contraceptive use in women with a family history of breast cancer. Journal of the American Medical Association. Vol 284. (October 11) Pgs 1791-1798. 2000.