Thomas Sellers, a Mayo Clinic Cancer Center epidemiologist, said his study, which included 3,396 blood relatives of 426 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1944 and 1952, is the first multigenerational study to address the question. Relatives were questioned and medical records reviewed between 1991 and 1996. The findings suggest the pill-linked risks are in women with the BRCA genetic mutations associated with breast and ovarian cancer, though genetic testing was not involved in the study. Sellers said he hopes the next phase of the research will address genetics as well as whether newer pills containing low doses of estrogen and progestin are safer. The study raises troubling questions for women with the genetic mutations because birth control pills are one of the few proven methods of reducing the risk of ovarian cancer, Dr. Wylie Burke of the University of Washington wrote in the JAMA editorial.
Ovarian cancer is harder to detect and often more deadly than breast cancer.
Women with long menstrual histories and those who never had children or had them late are also at higher risk. CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.