Mayo Clinic Cancer Centre epidemiologist Thomas Sellers said his study, which included 3,396 blood relatives of 426 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1944 and 1952, is the first multi-generational 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. He said he hopes the next phase of the research will answer that question 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 journal's editorial.
Ovarian cancer is harder to detect and often more deadly than breast cancer.
These trade-offs underscore the need for careful attention to what is known and what is not known when women at high risk consider their options. Copyright 2000 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.