Oral contraceptives and cancer
There is no evidence that the Pill increases the risk of breast cancer and in fact, it has been shown that oral contraceptives may offer some protection against benign breast disease.
Abstract
Dr. Kretzschmar: No, there isn't. There is no evidence that the Pill increases the risk of breast cancer and in fact, it has been shown that oral contraceptives may offer some protection against benign breast disease. For example, when Vessey and his group com pared 345 women admitted to London teaching hospitals with breast lumps (90 malignant and 255 benign) against a matched control group admitted for acute medical or surgical condi tions, it was found that oral contraceptives were in no way related to the risk of breast cancer. It was discovered that the risk of admission to a hospital for a breast biopsy among Pill users was reduced by about 75 percent, compared to those women who had never used the Pill at all. The Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program did another retrospective study, and had similar findings. One hundred twenty-one patients with breast disease (cancer, fi brocystic disease, fibroadenoma and miscellaneous problems such as fibrolipoma or benign duct ectasia) were compared to 842 patient controls. Among the women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, three of 23 (13 percent) had received oral con traceptives, compared to 20 percent who had received oral contraceptives among the controls. Of the patients with benign breast tumors, six percent had received oral contraceptives, compared to the 20 percent among the controls. When these findings were analyzed for the patients' ages, it was revealed that at each age level, Pill usage was less common in those with benign breast tumors. According to their data, hospital admissions in the Boston area for breast diagnos@ were reduced by almost half for those women using oral contraceptives.