title: Oral contraceptive use has no adverse effect on the prognosis of breast cancer.
abstract: This study evaluates the possible effect of OC use on the prognosis of established breast cancer. Three hundred forty-seven patients with primary invasive breast carcinoma age 50 and under treated from 1971 to 1981 are included in this study. There were 112 OC Users (U) and 235 Non-Users (NU). Separate retrospective analysis were done for a group of 154 patients (59 U and 95 NU) under age 35 (Group A) and for 193 patients (53 U and 140 NU) age 35 to 50 (Group B), in order to pay particular attention to relationship of duration, recency and latency of OC usage. Both subsets of U and NU presented similar clinical characteristics regarding menstrual, reproductive, family history, histology, receptor status. Users presented with a similar extent of disease as Non-Users. No significant differences were found between U and NU in disease-free interval (Gr A p = .41; Gr B p = .81), metastatic period (Gr A p = .66; Gr B p = .41) or survival (Gr A p = .54; Gr B p = .79), either alone or when adjusted for extent of node involvement. Users of less than two years (78 patients) had a similar survival (Gr A = .54; Gr B p = .36) as those of longer duration (33 patients). Recent OC users within a year of diagnosis had a similar survival as other users who stopped the pills more than one year (Gr A p = .86; Gr B p = .14). No significant differences were noticed in survival between the patients who began the use 10 years or more before diagnosis from those beginning more recently (Gr A p = .82; Gr B p = .69). Our data suggests no adverse effect of OC on the outcome of breast cancer, regardless the duration of use, latency or recency period.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D003276:Contraceptives, Oral / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D003276:Contraceptives, Oral; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen