Oral Contraceptives — Time to Take Stock

Abstract

About 1 in 13 women in the United States can expect to have breast cancer, and there is abundant evidence to suggest a hormonal component in its causation.¹ Not surprisingly, therefore, the widespread use of oral contraceptives has been a source of continuing concern since they were introduced in the early 1960s — a concern heightened by our knowledge that hormonally related factors, such as age at first pregnancy, can continue to influence the risk of breast cancer for an entire lifetime. In this issue of the Journal, the findings of the Cancer and Steroid Hormone Study provide welcome . . .