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Bra size in early adulthood indicative of future breast cancer risk
A new Harvard University study has found that a large bra size at a young age increases the risk of developing breast cancer in women in pre-menopausal age.
The researchers claim that even lean women with D-cup size by the age of 20 went on to develop breast cancer in the study that tracked almost 90,000 women. This risk was significantly grater than women who wore an A-cup size bra.
The detailed report is published in the International Journal of Cancer and claims that "mammary gland mass is associated with breast cancer risk among women with normal and lean body mass." However, the researchers say that they did not find any link in obese women between bra size and breast cancer. These result come in the wake of several studies which had highlighted that pre-menopausal women who did not wear bras had half the risk of developing breast cancer than those who did.
In the current study, 89,268 women aged between 25 and 42 were monitored from 1989. They answered questionnaires every two years regarding their bra size and other medical data such as diet, alcohol consumption, exercise, contraceptive use and family history of breast cancer.
The researchers also compared bra cup size at 20 with the risk of developing breast cancer in late 30s or early 40s. They found that women with a normal BMI, but bigger cup sizes were at an increased risk of developing the cancer. It is theorized that as the mass of the mammary gland increases so does the level of estrogen, which is an important maker in the development of breast cancer.
"Larger breasts may therefore represent higher exposures to oestrogens. This supports the notion that early life processes, which govern growth and maturation, can have an influence on breast cancer risk by increasing mammary gland mass," the researchers note in the article.
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Written
by :
Waddah Yaman | Published on :
16:51:00
EST
Sun, 20 Nov 2005 |
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