The October 11th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association reports a study of 426 families whereby investigators found that oral contraceptive use tripled breast cancer risk among women with sisters or mothers who had the disease. The risk was confined to women who used the Pill prior to 1975. Since then, birth control pills have evolved to include lower doses of estrogen and progestin, which should make them safer in terms of breast cancer, researchers suggest. The link between breast cancer and the Pill was strongest among women with five or more cases of breast or ovarian cancer in their families. In these 35 families, Pill use was linked to an 11-fold increase in breast cancer risk. The research team looked at both breast and ovarian cancer because the presence of both diseases in a family suggests that women may be genetically predisposed to breast cancer. According to Sellers, these findings suggest oral contraceptives may pose a risk for a subset of women who are strongly predisposed to breast cancer. The question of whether high-risk women should use new formulations of the Pill has no 'yes-or-no' answer, he noted. For example, women who are genetically susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer face a complex decision because the Pill appears to cut ovarian cancer risk. Ovarian cancer has a poor prognosis because, unlike breast cancer, it is rarely caught early. For more information about synthetic oestrogen refer to Dr John Lee's books available on this site.