Older Women Receive Good News on Pill : Study Finds Past Use Does Not Increase Breast Cancer Risk

Reassuring millions of middle-aged women, Harvard researchers today released a major study that failed to find any link between past birth control pill use and breast cancer.

The study did not, however, provide new evidence about whether younger women taking the pill are at increased risk for breast cancer--a controversial question that has recently caused considerable concern.

Reporting in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the Harvard team said it found women over 45 who had used oral contraceptives in the past did not have an increased risk for breast cancer--even if they had taken the pill for more than 10 years.

Risk for Women Under 45

The findings contrast with three recent studies conducted in the United States and Britain that found long-term use of oral contraceptives appeared to significantly increase the risk for breast cancer in women under 45.

Dr. Walter Willett, co-author of the Harvard study, noted that women in his study were generally older than those involved in the earlier studies and few women of the age group in his study were still taking the pill.

Participants in the continuing nurses’ health study, which has tracked the health of about 120,000 nurses in 11 large states since 1976, range in age from 43 to 68. About half of the women involved in the study had taken oral contraceptives, a use pattern similar to the general female population, Willett said.

Unanswered Question

“There does remain an unanswered question about the effects of longer-term contraceptive use in early reproductive life,” Willett cautioned. “Since the youngest participant is now 43 and oral contraceptives did not become available until the early 1960s, this study did not include the generation of women who used oral contraceptives for extended periods before the age of 25.”