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Pill reduces ovarian cancer risk

25/01/2008

Women taking the contraceptive pill have a substantial and long-lasting protection against ovarian cancer, a new report claims today.

Previous studies have linked the contraception with a reduced risk of ovarian cancer, but today's study says this protection lasts for more than 30 years after women stop taking the pill.

Researchers behind the report also found that the longer the pill was used, the greater the protection given.

Taking the pill for 15 years was linked to ovarian cancer risk being cut in half.

Other studies have found that the pill also causes long-lasting protection against endometrial cancer (cancer or the lining of the womb) but causes a short-lived increase in breast cancer and in cervical cancer (cancer of the neck of the womb).

Today's report, published in the Lancet journal, estimates that in high-income countries, using oral contraceptives for ten years reduces the risk of developing ovarian cancer before the age of 75 from 12 to eight women per 1,000.

The risk of death from this type of cancer before the age of 75 also fell, from seven down to five per 1,000 women.

The results are drawn from 45 epidemiological studies of ovarian cancer in 21 countries which involved over 23,000 women.

The study's lead author Professor Valerie Beral, director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University, said: "Worldwide, the pill has already prevented 200,000 women from developing cancer of the ovary and has prevented 100,000 deaths from the disease.

"More than 100 million women are now taking the pill, so the number of ovarian cancers prevented will rise over the next few decades to about 30,000 per year."

Co-author Sir Richard Peto, Professor of Epidemiology at Oxford University, said: "Young women don’t have to worry about cancer from taking the pill because the eventual reduction in ovarian cancer is bigger than any increase in other types of cancer caused by the pill."

Commenting on the study, Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK's director of cancer information, said: "All women who have taken the pill or are currently taking it should be reassured by this study.

"Any woman with concerns about taking the contraceptive Pill should discuss them with her GP or local Family Planning Clinic."