The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7205 p6
6 July 2002

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New England Journal of Medicine (content.nejm.org)

Oral contraceptives not associated with increased risk of breast cancer

Current or former use of oral contraceptives is not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer among women aged 35 to 64 years, say researchers in the United States.

The researchers conducted a case control study in which 4,575 women with breast cancer and 4,682 controls were interviewed. Seventy-seven per cent of the women with breast cancer and 79 per cent of the controls had used some type of oral contraceptive pill.

The investigators found that the relative risk of breast cancer was 1.0 (95 per cent confidence interval, 0.8 to 1.3) for women currently using oral contraceptives and 0.9 (0.8 to 1.0) for those who had previously used them compared with the risk among controls. There was no significant increase in risk for women who had used oral contraceptives for long periods, for women who had begun taking oral contraceptives before 20 years of age, for those with a first degree relative with breast cancer or for those taking a higher dose of estrogen. The risk was similar for women aged between 35 and 44 years and those aged between 45 and 64 years, and among white and black women (New England Journal of Medicine 2002;346: 2025).

In an accompanying editorial (ibid 2078), Dr Nancy Davidson and Dr Kathy Helzlsouer, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, say: "The study provides further reassurance that oral contraceptive use, even for a long period, is not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer."