|
|
|
Induced abortion does not increase the risk of breast cancer
Recently a link between termination
of pregnancy and breast cancer has been promoted by some groups in
Australia and internationally. Such a claim is not supported by scientific
evidence and only serves to cause unnecessary distress amongst women.
Around the world, reproductive
health and anti-cancer organisations have rejected any association between
abortion and an increased risk of breast cancer. This rejection is based
on scientific investigation.
A summary of the evidence:
- A review of all the data on individual women from 53
scientific studies undertaken in 16 countries on the possible link between
abortion and breast cancer found that “...[p]regnancies that end as a
spontaneous or induced abortion do not increase a woman’s risk of
developing breast cancer.” The
review entitled ‘Breast Cancer and abortion: a collaborative reanalysis
of data from 53 epidemiological studies, including 83000 women with
breast cancer from 16 countries’, was conducted by the Collaborative
Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer and published in peer-reviewed
journal The Lancet in March 2004.
-
The National Cancer Institute, the cancer research and
training government agency in the USA, declared in February 2003, that
"induced
abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk."
- The World Health Organisation, the health arm of the United
Nations, in its Fact Sheet No 240 in June 2000, concluded that induced
abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy does not have the effect of
raising a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer later in life.
- The National Health and Medical Research Centre’s National
Breast Cancer Centre in Australia, in its 1999 publication Summary of
risk factors for breast cancer, does not recognise induced abortion as
a cause of increased risk to breast cancer.
- The UK Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
recently released its Guidelines for the care of women requesting
induced abortion.The College reviewed the available information from well-conducted clinical
studies, including correlation studies, and concluded that the
“available evidence on an association between induced abortion and
breast cancer is inconclusive.”
-
In 1997, a study by Melbye et al. was published in the
prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. This large study of
the entire female population of Denmark was based on information obtained
from Danish population registries. The researchers compared the abortion
histories of women with and without breast cancer and concluded that
induced abortions have no overall effect on the risk of breast cancer.
-
The 1999 ACT Department of Health and Community Care
information booklet “Considering an abortion?” states that “The
weight of evidence tells us that a single termination under medical
supervision, carried out under proper conditions, does not increase risk
of infertility, ectopic (tubal) pregnancy, spontaneous miscarriage,
preterm labour, low birth weight or breast cancer”.
At present epidemiological research does not suggest that a termination
of pregnancy increases a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer later
in life. The factors for increased risk and incidence of breast
cancer in Australia are complex and varied. Variables in relation to
age, family history, timing of first menstruation and/or pregnancy are
some of factors that may contribute to a rise in breast cancer.
For further information on breast cancer risk factors, refer to
Women's Health Queensland Wide.
|
