NUCCA News - Early birth-control pills linked to breast cancer

December 4, 2002 Sun Times

WASHINGTON--Women with certain gene mutations have more than a 60 percent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. Now a new study suggests the risk is even greater for these women if they used oral contraceptives at an early age or before 1975.

The study, in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that among women with the BRCA1 gene mutation, taking the pill years ago increased the chances of developing breast cancer by 33 percent to 42 percent when compared to mutation carriers who did not take it.

Dr. Steven A. Narod, chairman of breast cancer research at the Centre for Research on Women's Health at the University of Toronto, said the study does not mean that modern birth-control pills are dangerous for women with the breast cancer gene.

''In this data, the only women who had an increased risk started taking the pill before 1975. Also, they had to take it when they were young, under the age of 25,'' he said.

Modern birth-control pills have only a fraction of the hormones that were present in birth-control pills used before 1975, he said.