Early oral contraceptive use and premenopausal breast cancer--a review of studies performed in southern Sweden.

• In southern Sweden, extensive oral contraceptive use (OC use) among young women was a reality during the 1960s, thus making our region especially suited for studies investigating the hypothesis that early OC use is associated with the development of premenopausal breast cancer after a possible latency time between the exposure and the disease. The results of this study revealed that the risk of developing premenopausal breast cancer in women, who during the 1960s used the pill as teenagers, is five times greater than nonusers. The risk for early users is further modified by the duration of use at an early age, implying a dose-response relationship. Later use of OCs is not associated with an increased risk for the disease. Women with breast cancer, who at an early age have used the pill, have larger breast tumors, lower estrogen receptor concentrations of their primary tumor, and a worse prognosis compared with later and nonusers with breast cancer. The incidence of breast cancer in Sweden rapidly increased in women 25 to 40 years of age between 1970 and 1984. Conventional risk factors or a change in diagnostic activities of breast cancer cannot explain the increase in incidence which could be due to the OC exposure. Studies on the risk with modern OCs must wait another 20 years because of a too short latency time.

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