Oral Contraceptives Offer Protection In Specific Cancers

Oral contraceptives may offer protection against ovarian and endometrial cancers for several decades after discontinuing the use.

Oral contraceptives may offer protection against ovarian and endometrial cancers for several decades after discontinuing the use as per a study at Uppsala University, published in the journal Cancer Research.

Ovarian and endometrial cancer are one of the most common cancers in women, with a lifetime risk of just over 2 percent. Unlike endometrial cancer that has a better diagnostic rate and low mortality rate, ovarian cancer is detected at a later stage of metastases marking it as one of the deadliest cancers.

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‘Oral contraceptives may offer protection against ovarian and endometrial cancers for several decades after discontinuing the use. Unlike previous pieces of evidence, the least correlation was seen in the risk of breast cancer among oral contraceptive users.’

First approved in the 1960s, oral contraceptive pills are used by almost 80 percent of all women in Western Europe at some point in their life. Oral contraceptives include estrogen and progestin, synthetic forms of the female sex hormones, to prevent ovulation and thereby protect against pregnancy.

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The study among more than 250,000 women was done to compare the incidence of breast, ovarian, and endometrial cancers between women that had used oral contraceptive pills and those who never used them.

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"It was clear that women who had used oral contraceptive pills had a much lower risk of developing both ovarian and endometrial cancer. Fifteen years after discontinuing oral contraceptives, the risk was about 50 percent lower. However, a decreased risk was still detected up to 30-35 years after discontinuation," says Åsa Johansson at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, one of the leading researchers behind the study.

Although the oral contraceptive pills have previously been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, the present research found a minimal correlation among them. . Only a small amount of increased risk of breast cancer was observed in oral contraceptive users, which gradually diminished within a few years after discontinuation.

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The study thereby highlighted the importance of oral contraceptive usage in women and their associated risks with specific types of cancers.

"In addition to protecting against pregnancy, we have shown that oral contraceptive pills also have other positive effects. Our results can enable women and physicians to make more informed decisions about which women should use oral contraceptive pills," says Therese Johansson, one of the Ph.D. students behind the study.

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Source-Medindia