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  • Title: Oral contraceptives and neoplasia.
    Journal: Lancet; 1983 Oct 22; 2(8356):947-8. PubMed ID: 6138506.
    Abstract:
    The link betwen oral contraceptives (OCs) and cancer was first suggested in 1977 on the basis of histories of women with breast cancer living in the San Francisco Bay area. In 1981 a similar relation was found for women aged 32 or less in Los Angeles. That study also noted that the risk increased the longer the women had taken OCs before having their 1st full term pregnancy. A study of women who had taken OCs before their 1st full term pregnancy in London and Oxford found no clear evidence of an increase in breast cancer. The most likely explanation is that in the 1970s on the west coast of the US large numbers of adolescents and women in their early 20s had taken OCs for a substantial period of time and now they are at an age where breast cancer incidence is no longer negligible and, because of their number, they can be studied adequately. A study in Los Angeles on the relation of different OC preparations to breast cancer risk in 314 women age 36 or younger at the time when their cancer was diagnosed concluded that most of the increased risk can be attributed to use at very early ages of certain combinations with a high content of progestogens. This may be because cyclical breast stimulation by progestogens is detrimental, teenage girls normally being protected by the long and often anovular cycles that characterize the years after menarche. Cancer or dysplasia of the uterine cervix has several times been related to longterm use of OCs. There is also evidence to support the claim that the relationship between cervical cancer and prolonged OC use exists. It has been recommended that OC users have regular cervical smears and that women who used OCs as teenagers have regular breast examinations.
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