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. 2003 Apr 2;5(3):164–173. doi: 10.1186/bcr593

Table 2.

The relative risk of breast cancer associated with testosterone levels: results from case–control studies

Author, year [reference] Population Exposure Cases Controls Categories1 OR 95% CI P
Secreto, 1984 [27]2 Premenopausal women in Milan Serum T 13 47 <590 1.0
4 9 590–670 2.6 0.6–10.9
10 6 671+ 10.2 2.6–40.0 0.0004
Urinary T 9 35 <8.2 1.0
4 7 8.2–10.5 2.3 1.2–12.9
10 5 10.6+ 8.4 2.1–33.6 0.002
Secreto, 1989 [28]2 Women in Milan age 30–49 years Serum T 31 51 <309 1.0
32 17 309+ 3.4 1.6–7.3 0.05
Urinary T 36 50 <7.6 1.0
24 16 7.6+ 2.1 0.9–4.8 NS
Secreto, 1991 [24]3 Postmenopausal women in Milan<69 years of age Serum T 16 40 <146 1.0
16 40 146–212 1.2 0.5–3.0
18 38 213–275 1.5 0.6–3.7
25 32 >275 2.7 1.1–6.7 0.03
Urinary T4 11 43 <18 1.0
14 38 18–31 1.2 0.5–2.9
17 37 32–46 2.2 0.8–5.7
30 26 >46 4.7 1.8–12.1 0.001
Serum DHT 15 37 <36 1.0
20 40 36–57 1.6 0.7–3.7
16 38 58–82 1.3 0.5–3.1
24 35 >82 2.0 0.8–5.0 NS
Lipworth, 1996 [25]5 Postmenopausal women from Sweden Serum T6 23 35 260 1.00
15 27 350 0.75 0.33–1.75
47 30 470 2.64 1.27–5.46
36 30 700 2.30 0.97–5.50 0.041

1Serum T and DHT converted to pg/ml and urinary T converted to μg/24 hours. 2Age adjusted model. 3Adjusted for age, occupation and number of children. 4Units in pg/ml. 5Adjusted for age and residence. 6Categorized by quartile medians. CI, confidence interval; DHT, dihydrotestosterone; NS, not significant; OR, odds ratio; T, testosterone.