Breast
cancer may be linked to use of antibiotics
Jonathan Leake and Jonathon Carr-Brown
WOMEN
who frequently use antibiotics such as penicillin may be increasing
their risk of breast cancer by as much as 50%, according to
a study to be published this week.
The review of health records of more than 10,000 women, some as young as 19,
found a clear link between the risk of cancer and both the number of times
women were prescribed antibiotics and the length of each course of treatment.
Even taking antibiotics for relatively minor conditions such as acne seemed
to increase the risk of later breast cancer. The researchers say this suggests
the drugs themselves rather than any underlying infection may be affecting
tumour growth.
Britain
has one of the highest rates of breast cancer in the world.
Women here have a one in 12 risk of developing the disease
at some stage in their lives. If the new research is correct,
this risk could increase to one in eight among high users of
antibiotics.
It
would mean antibiotics have a greater effect than the contraceptive
pill or hormone replacement therapy in increasing the risk
of breast cancer.
The
study, the first to suggest a link between antibiotics and
cancer, was led by Christine Velicer from the department of
epidemiology at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her
team randomly selected women for the study from patients insured
by Group Health Co-operative in Washington state.
They
compared 2,266 women who had breast cancer with 7,953 who did
not, and looked at the total number of days of antibiotic use
and the number of antibiotic prescriptions in each group.
“All
classes of antibiotic were associated with increased risk (of
breast cancer),” they say in the report, which was funded
by America’s National Cancer Institute.
“We
found that increasing cumulative days of antibiotic use was
associated with increased risk after controlling for age. The
results support the continued need for prudent long-term use
of antibiotics and the need for further studies of the association
between antibiotic use and cancer risk.”
An
editorial to be published alongside the study in the Journal
of the American Medical Association this Wednesday says the
findings are worrying but do not pinpoint if it is the antibiotics
themselves that may be implicated in cancer.
British
experts yesterday played down the possibility that drugs were
to blame.
Angus
Dalgleish, professor of cancer at St George’s hospital,
London, said: “This study provides something for people
to think about, but it is highly unlikely antibiotics are actually
causing cancer.”
Other
specialists agreed it was more likely the drugs were merely
damping down chronic inflammation that could lead anyway to
tumour development.
The
NHS is set to give all women with a high risk of cancer the
right to have healthy breasts removed as a precaution. Under
draft guidelines issued by the National Institute for Clinical
Excellence, women with a family history of breast cancer will
be offered the procedure before signs of the disease have emerged. "
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