The New York Times-20080125-With the Pill- Years Of Cancer Protection
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With the Pill, Years Of Cancer Protection
Women on the birth control pill are protected from ovarian cancer, even decades after they stop taking it, scientists said.
British researchers found that women taking the pill for 15 years halved their chances of developing ovarian cancer and that the risk remained low more than 30 years later.
The findings were to be published Friday in The Lancet.
Not only does the pill prevent pregnancy, but in the long term, you actually get less cancer as well, said Valerie Beral, the study's lead author and director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University. The study was financed by Cancer Research UK, a charity, and Britain's Medical Research Council.
Ms. Beral and colleagues analyzed data from 45 studies worldwide, covering 23,257 women with ovarian cancer, 31 percent on the pill. They also looked at 87,303 women, 37 percent on the pill, without ovarian cancer.
The study found that in rich countries women taking oral contraceptives for a decade were less likely to develop ovarian cancer. Without the pill, about 12 women in 1,000 are expected to have ovarian cancer before age 75. But the figure fell to 8 women in 1,000 in those on the pill.
