Breast Cancer


This video is Reproductive Breast Cancer Risks, given by Dr. Angela Lanfranchi as a presentation to the American College of Pediatricians.  To learn more please visit the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute

Birth control pills and breast cancer:

The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks oral contraception as a class one-carcinogen. Other class one carcinogens are tobacco and asbestos.
Source: International Agency for Research on Cancer: Agents Classified by the IARC Monographs (Enter oral contraceptive in the search bar.)
A study done in 2009 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle shows a 4-fold increase in an aggressive form of breast cancer called triple negative breast cancer in women who started taking the contraceptives before their first pregnancy.
Source: Risk Factors for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Women Under the Age of 45 Years ; also referred to in this article: Study Links birth-control pill to rare breast cancer.
Mayo Clinic 10/2006 Proceeding reviewed many studies on the link between breast cancer and birth control pills and found. “ Use of OCs [birth control pills] is associated with an increased risk of premenopausal breast cancer, especially with use before FFTP [first full-term pregnancy] in parous [women with children] women.
Source: Oral contraceptive use as a risk factor for premenopausal breast cancer: a meta-analysis.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded: “ The risk of breast cancer was higher among women who currently or recently used contemporary hormonal contraceptives than among women who never used hormonal contraceptives, and the risk increased with longer durations of use: however, absolute increases in risk were small."

Source: Contemporary Hormonal Contraception and the Risk of Breast Cancer.

Depo Provera (DMPA – depomedroxyprogesterone acetate) and breast cancer:

From the American Association for Cancer Research in 2012:

“We found that recent DMPA use for 12 months or longer was associated with a 2.2-fold increased risk of invasive breast cancer.”

That is more than twice the risk!