ABC Link at National Lawyers Assn Conference
ABORTION-BREAST CANCER LINK, HORMONES DISCUSSED AT NATIONAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
Attorneys attending a conference sponsored by the National Lawyers Association at Chicago's Kent College of Law on August 1 heard speakers discuss the abortion-breast cancer (ABC) link and the role of hormones in the development of breast cancer.
Mayer Eisenstein, MD, JD, MPH, said that estrogen is connected with the development of most breast cancers. Eisenstein's speech is relevant to the ABC link because women are exposed to more estrogen during normal pregnancies (but not most miscarriages) than at any other time during their lives. This effect is only corrected in the third trimester when breast cells are matured into cancer-resistant tissue.
The government's Report on Carcinogens included steroidal estrogens (used in oral contraceptives and estrogen replacement therapy) on its list of "known carcinogens" last year.
Eisenstein said, "Anyone who's on (them) unavoidably increases breast cancer risk." Having more children, starting at an earlier age, reduces lifetime risk.