Study Links Breast Cancer to Antibiotics Use - WaPo

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Study Links Breast Cancer to Antibiotics Use

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 16, 2004; 2:27 PM

Antibiotic use is associated with an increased risk for breast cancer, a new study
has found, raising the possibility that women who take the widely used medicines
are prone to one of the most feared malignancies.

The first-of-its-kind study of
more than 10,000 Washington
state women concluded that
women who used the most
antibiotics had double the
chances of being struck by
breast cancer, that the
association was consistent for
all forms of antibiotics and that
the risk went up with the
number of prescriptions, a
powerful indication that the link
was real.

A variety of experts quickly
cautioned, however, that the findings should not stop women from taking the often
life-saving drugs when they need them to treat infections. There could be other
explanations for the association, and much more research is needed before
scientists understood what the surprising results mean, they said.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45831-2004Feb16.html