Breast Cancer: Twice as High for Left-Handed Women
- From: "DrEvil" <drevil@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 23:06:48 +0800
Breast Cancer: Twice as High for Left-Handed Women
Left-handed women's risk of breast cancer higher: Study
Reuters
Posted online: Monday, September 26, 2005 at 1731 hours IST
London, September 26: Left-handed women are more than twice as likely as
right-handers to suffer from breast cancer before reaching menopause, Dutch
scientists said on Monday.
More than a million women are diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide each
year. Three-quarters of cases occur after menopause, which usually begins
around the age of 50.
Researchers at the University Medical Center in Utrecht in the Netherlands
speculate that there is a shared origin early in life for both left
handedness and developing breast cancer, possibly exposure to hormones in
the womb.
"Left handedness is associated with breast cancer, most specifically
pre-menopausal breast cancer," said Cuno Uiterwaal, an assistant professor
of clinical epidemiology at the university, in an interview.
He and his colleagues studied 12,000 healthy, middle-aged women born between
1932-1941 who were part of a breast screening program. The scientists
determined their hand preference and followed up their medical history to
see which women developed breast cancer.
"If we take pre-menopausal and post-menopausal breast cancer then there was
a 40 per cent increased risk," Uiterwaal said of left-handed women.
But when they spilled it further the scientists found most of the excess
risk was in breast cancer before the menopause.
"We found that left-handed women are more than twice as likely to develop
pre-menopausal breast cancer as non-left handed women," the researchers said
in the report published online by the British Medical Journal.
Other risk factors such as family history of breast cancer, numbers of
pregnancies, smoking habits, and social and economic status were considered.
About 8 per cent to 9 per cent of women are left-handed. But the scientists
said the findings should not alarm them.
"What our study intends to do is focus on this area. We do not know all the
causes of breast cancer, that is why we should continue. This may be one new
factor that leads us to a better understanding of the aetiology (cause of
the illness)," Uiterwaal added.
About 5 per cent to 10 per cent of breast cancers are hereditary. Most are
due to mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. The earlier the illness is
diagnosed and treated, the better the prognosis is for the woman.
"Although the underlying mechanisms remain elusive, our results support the
hypothesis that left handedness is related to increased risk of breast
cancer," the researchers added.
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=55407
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