Placenta Weight Carries Breast Cancer Warning
Delthia Ricks
Newsday
______
Women who give birth to babies whose placentas are heavy have an increased risk of breast cancer, according to an unusual analysis by a Swedish team.
Targeting the high concentration of hormones produced by the placenta during pregnancy, researchers at the Karolinska Institute suggest large placentas may escalate the mother's risk of breast cancer later in life.
The study appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. Led by Dr. Sven Cnattingius, the team studied more than 314,000 women, 2,216 of whom developed breast cancer. Cnattingius culled data from several government registers.Included were women who had single births between 1982 and 1989, with complete information on their own date of birth and their babies' gestational age.
They were tracked through December 2001.For years, doctors have been aware that breast cancer risk increases with a woman's age at first birth. But there are other mysteries linked to pregnancy and breast cancer, scientists say, and a growing number of studies show some of the clues may be found in the placenta.
The study found breast cancer risk was most elevated among women whose placentas weighed between 500 and 699 grams in the first pregnancy and at least 700 grams in the second - or vice versa. Breast cancer risk doubled among women whose placentas weighed at least 700 grams in both pregnancies. These women were 38 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than those whose placentas weighed less than 500 grams.
Nov 16, 2005
Delthia Ricks
Newsday
______
Women who give birth to babies whose placentas are heavy have an increased risk of breast cancer, according to an unusual analysis by a Swedish team.
Targeting the high concentration of hormones produced by the placenta during pregnancy, researchers at the Karolinska Institute suggest large placentas may escalate the mother's risk of breast cancer later in life.
The study appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. Led by Dr. Sven Cnattingius, the team studied more than 314,000 women, 2,216 of whom developed breast cancer. Cnattingius culled data from several government registers.Included were women who had single births between 1982 and 1989, with complete information on their own date of birth and their babies' gestational age.
They were tracked through December 2001.For years, doctors have been aware that breast cancer risk increases with a woman's age at first birth. But there are other mysteries linked to pregnancy and breast cancer, scientists say, and a growing number of studies show some of the clues may be found in the placenta.
The study found breast cancer risk was most elevated among women whose placentas weighed between 500 and 699 grams in the first pregnancy and at least 700 grams in the second - or vice versa. Breast cancer risk doubled among women whose placentas weighed at least 700 grams in both pregnancies. These women were 38 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than those whose placentas weighed less than 500 grams.
Nov 16, 2005
