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British Journal of Cancer logoLink to British Journal of Cancer
. 1981 Jan;43(1):72–76. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1981.10

Oral contraceptive use and early abortion as risk factors for breast cancer in young women.

M C Pike, B E Henderson, J T Casagrande, I Rosario, G E Gray
PMCID: PMC2010485  PMID: 7459241

Abstract

A case-control study was conducted in Los Angeles County, California, of 163 very young breast-cancer cases (all aged 32 or less at diagnosis) to investigate the role, if any, of oral contraceptives (OC) in the development of the disease. OC use before first full-term pregnancy (FFTP) was associated with an elevated risk, which increased with duration of OC use (relative risk approximately 2.2 at 6 years of use, P < 0.01). This increased risk could not be explained by other risk factors. OC use after FFTP was not associated with any change in risk. A first-trimester abortion before FFTP, whether spontaneous or induced, was associated with a 2.4-fold increase in breast-cancer risk (P < 0.005).

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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