. "Appendix B: Oral Contraceptives and Breast Cancer: Review of the Epidemiological Literature." Oral Contraceptives and Breast Cancer. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 1991.
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Oral Contraceptives & Breast Cancer
McPherson and colleagues (1986) have suggested that the reason for the discrepant findings is that the studies that showed no association were unable to assess risk after a long potential latent period. As shown in Table B-18, however, four studies have shown that risk is not particularly enhanced more than a decade after exposure to oral contraceptives before a first birth (McPherson et al., 1987; Vessey et al., 1989; Paul et al., 1990) or after 15 years following the first birth in women who used the pill prior to that birth (Schlesselman et al., 1988).
It should also be noted that in two of the studies in Table B-16
TABLE B-15 Relative Risk of Breast Cancer in Women Who Used Oral Contraceptives Before and After Diagnosis of a Benign Breast Lesion
