ORAL CONTRACEPTIVE USE AND CANCER RISK

New evidence
A paper published in September 2007 in the BMJ from Hannaford et al has reported
findings on the use of oral contraceptives and cancer risk.

Key findings
• contraceptive pill use is associated with a 12% decrease in the risk of
developing cancer overall
• there is a statistically significant reduction in the rates of large bowel or
rectal cancer and cancer of the uterine body or ovaries
• there are no differences between ever and never users in their risk of
breast cancer
• there was no increase in the risk of cancers of the lung, cervix, central
nervous system overall
• there was a very small increased risk in cervical cancer in women using
OC for , 8 years (rate 38 per 100 000 woman years)


Reference
Hannaford P, Selvaraja S, Elliot, A, Angus V, Iversen L and Lee A. Cancer risk among users of oral contraceptives: cohort data from the royal College of General Practitioner’s oral contraceptive study. British Medical Journal September 2007 www.bmj.com)