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| Abortion, miscarriage and breast cancer | | |
BL KAK
NEW DELHI, Apr 25:
Abortion and miscarriage. Do they increase the risk of breast cancer? "No", according to a Harvard study in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine. Karin Michels of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston has been quoted as saying: "If you look at the high-quality evidence, it does not support an association between induced abortions and breast cancer".
The study also supports earlier findings in 2003 by a panel of experts from the National Cancer Institute that having an abortion does not increase a woman's risk of getting breast cancer. What evidence shows in the new study is that childbearing before the age of 35 reduces a woman's breast cancer risk and breast-feeding also helps, said the lead author Karin Michels.
Scientists believe breast cells that have gone through a full-term pregnancy gain protection against cancer, she said. The study, acccording to media reports, looked at data from 105,716 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study, which was established in 1976 to study a wide range of health issues affecting women.
The women, aged 29 to 46 at the start of the study, were followed for 10 years. Every two years, they were asked about abortions, miscarriages and new breast cancer diagnoses. The researchers looked at medical records to confirm the diagnoses.
The researchers reportedly found no greater rate of breast cancer among the women who reported having abortions, compared to the other women. They saw no greater risk associated with multiple abortions and no greater risk linked with miscarriages.
Karin Michels was also quoted as saying: "Among this predominantly premenopausal population, neither induced nor spontaneous abortion was associated with the incidence of breast cancer; number of abortions, age at abortion, parity (having had a live baby) status, or timing of abortion with respect to a full-term pregnancy did not affect the results".
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