2009 study confirms abortion-breast cancer link

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Comments: 5

Bethesda, Md., Jan 7, 2010 / 07:40 am (CNA).- An April 2009 study co-authored by a researcher who has previously denied an abortion-breast cancer link shows a statistically significant increase in breast cancer risk among women who have had abortions or who use oral contraceptives. The study by researchers including Jessica Dolle of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research contained a table reporting a statistically significant 40 percent risk increase for women who have had abortions. According to the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer (CABC), the study listed abortion as among “known and suspected risk factors.”

The CABC says that one co-author of the study, U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) researcher Dr. Louise Brinton, had organized a 2003 NCI workshop on the abortion-breast cancer link. That workshop reportedly said the non-existence of an abortion-breast cancer link was “well established.”

CNA contacted Dr. Brinton for comment but did not receive a reply by publication time.

Dr. Joel Brind, who is a CBCP advisor and president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute and a professor of endocrinology at Baruch College at City University of New York, said that the study’s findings on abortion were not new.

Rather, they repeated the “modest but significant” findings of the 1990s which found a breast cancer risk factor increase of between 20 and 50 percent.

However, he said Dr. Brinton’s participation in the study was significant because the NCI has “firmly maintained” a position denying an abortion-breast cancer link since 2003.

The study, titled “Risk factors for triple-negative breast cancer in women under the age of 45 years,” was published in the American Association for Cancer Research’s (AACR) medical journal “Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.”

Researchers also found a significant link between the use of oral contraceptives and a particularly aggressive cancer known as triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Brind said that according to the study, women who start oral contraceptives before the age of 18 multiply their risk of TNBC by 3.7 times. Those who were users of oral contraceptives within one to five years before the study showed a risk 4.2 times the average.

TNBC is associated with high mortality. Brind suggested that oral contraceptives may function not merely as a secondary carcinogen. Rather, the synthetic estrogen-progestin combination or its metabolic byproducts may be a primary cause of the cell mutations that lead to cancer formation.

CBCP president Karen Malec criticized that the NCI, the American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and other cancer organizations for not issuing nationwide warnings to women on the basis of the study.

Comments: 5

Subscriber comments:

Published by: Chaplain Rodney Ornellas
Hanford Calif 01/18/2010 10:26 AM EST

Where can I find a link for the oral contraception and breast cancer connection? I could not find it on this site. It should be.. IF I missed it I'm sorry. Maybe make it more noticeable. Thanks

Published by: Enrique Woll
Lima, PERU 01/08/2010 02:21 PM EST

It makes sense for women young and old alike better inform themselves on the link between spontaneous and induced abortion and breast cancer (ABC) and oral contraceptives and breast cancer, and re-assess their choices for the future. Nothing wrong with changing ones mind.

Published by: jane
t'ville, ga, usa 01/08/2010 12:16 PM EST

I would have liked to have your title to have shown a strong emphasis not just on abortion but on contraceptions as well. This is written in but abortion is larger and so very important, which I know, yet I feel that many, many women are using oral contraceptions and are not realizing the dangers for them. Many Catholics take oral contraceptions even though they know better. I hope many will read this and know the danger for themselves. Of course, needless to say, that those who have had an abortion definitely need to have mammograms often.

Published by: Mary Segura
Los Angeles, CA 01/08/2010 09:18 AM EST

I am living proof that there is a connection. I took birth control pills beginning around age 21, and had an abortion. I had stage 3 breast cancer at age 45. By the grace of God, I have been cancer free since 1998. I now know that having abortions and taking birth control is not what God had in mind if you want to control your family population. I now advocate Natural Family Planning. My daughter who practices it, is living proof that it works!

Published by: Lee
Naperville IL 01/07/2010 05:15 PM EST

The hope is that the women of this country and beyond will do their homework and stop giving to the Komen Foundation. ABC information has been available for years and most of the women I know still don't believe it. Komen and PP have been feeding women a pack of lies and I think they find it more believable than the truth. Komen has been selling women on the idea that if they contribute to its foundation a cure will be found. Komen knows about and has known about the ABC connection. For this organization and PP it is all about the almighty dollar. No Cure is coming from the Komen Foundation. It is time to expose this fraud for what it is.

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