Study: Breast Cancer Risk Factors in Turkish women – a University Hospital

Based Nested Case Control Study

Turkish Study Showed Induced Abortion Significantly Associated with Increased Breast Cancer Risk.

• Between 2000 and 2006, 3,659 women at clinics of the Istanbul University Hospital were surveyed via a questionnaire regarding their age at first birth, number of births, induced abortion, education, body mass index, smoking, alcohol intake, family history of breast cancer, breastfeeding, miscarriage, oral contraceptive use, hormone replacement therapy, and age at menopause.  Women diagnosed with breast cancer were compared with a control group of women admitted to the hospital for non-neoplastic (abnormal and uncontrolled growth of new cells) and non-hormone related diseases. Results suggest that induced abortion was found to be significantly associated with increased breast cancer risk.  Women with increased age (greater than 50) also showed a significant association.  The age at first birth being greater than 35 or an increased body mass index greater than 25 or a positive family (mother or sister) history of breast cancer were also more likely to carry increased breast cancer risk.¹

¹World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2009, 7:37 doi:10.1186/1477-7819-7-37 This article is available from: http://www.wjso.com/content/7/1/37 © 2009 Ozmen et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.