Posted on 06/01/2010 5:35:13 AM PDT by Daniel T. Zanoza
Dr. Chris Kahlenborn is the lead author of the Mayo Clinic Proceeding’s article cited below. Kahlenborn testified before the FDA in June of 2000 regarding the link between oral contraceptives and breast cancer.
May 2010 marked the 50th anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the birth control pill in the United States. Newspapers and magazines around the country ran stories on this, mostly extolling the social and medical benefits of the pill. This theme was bolstered by a recent communiqué from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) which noted: “The pill remains one of the safest and most popular forms of contraception in the U.S.” (Office of Communications, ACOG, May 6, 2010 http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr05-06-10.cfm)
I find it disturbing that after nearly 50 years, both the media and the medical establishment have failed to give a true airing to one of the pill’s most dangerous side effects; namely, that “dirty little secret.” What’s that? One need only check the Mayo Clinic Proceedings-the major medical publication of the Mayo Clinic-to find our little-known study, which showed that the pill increases the risk of premenopausal breast cancer substantially when taken at a young age (see Mayo Clinic Proceedings: October, 2006: available to the public on line). In October, 2006, we reviewed the medical literature and combined data in an analysis (referred to as a meta-analysis): we found that 21 out of 23 studies showed that using oral contraceptives prior to a woman’s first birth resulted in a 44% increased risk in premenopausal breast cancer. Our meta-analysis remains the most recent study in this area and updates the previously analysis (the Oxford-analysis published in 1996) which relied on older data with older women (two-thirds of whom were over age 45); unfortunately, the Oxford study continues to be quoted by ACOG, textbooks, the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and most researchers and obstetricians, claiming that oral contraceptives carry little breast cancer risk especially ten years after last use.
I continue to be amazed at the discordance between the medical literature and public/medical awareness. To my dismay, after our meta-analysis was published, the Mayo Clinic sent out a press release to all major media in the country. The response?: ( ). The blank space between the parentheses is purposeful. Although our meta-analysis received scant internet coverage, almost no major media covered this study, which is shocking, given the fact that about 40,000 women in the U.S. get premenopausal breast cancer annually, oral contraceptives are an elective risk factor and our study is the most recent meta-analysis to date on the oral contraceptive-breast cancer link.
In addition to our meta-analysis, it’s important to note that the World Health Organization classified oral contraceptives as a Class I carcinogen in 2005 (i.e., the most dangerous classification). Even more data has come forth recently in a paper by several researchers-one of whom is a major researcher of the National Cancer Institute-which not only cited our meta-analysis, but found that oral contraceptives increase the risk of triple-negative breast cancer in women under forty by 320 percent (triple-negative breast cancers are extremely aggressive) (Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention; April, 2009).
Few in the medical establishment or the public are aware of these data, or if they are, young women almost never hear about them. It’s been almost four years since the publication of our study in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings; I am beginning to think that our study has been effectively “buried.” Breast cancer and the pill-that dirty little secret? Some day perhaps someone in the media and/or medical establishment will dust a little dirt off those pink ribbons and let young women hear all the facts so they can finally make truly informed decisions.
* Chris Kahlenborn, MD The Polycarp Research Institute Box 105 Enola, PA 17025 717-732-4904 Drchrisk@polycarp.org http://www.polycarp.org/
“Then, of course, there is the added benefit of birth control and poverty prevention”
Thank you very much for helping to contracept Western Civilization out of existence. Satan is very pleased.
Satan can't be all that happy 'bout that. Of course...I don't really believe in the boogeyman, anyway. lol
“...the tax payers haven’t had to subsidize my breeding habits through medicaid, WIC, free lunch programs, free preschool/HEADSTART, foodstamps.....”
Socialism is not the sole alternative to contraception.
“Satan can’t be all that happy ‘bout that. Of course...I don’t really believe in the boogeyman, anyway. lol”
Yeah, well, he believes in you.
Nah...just people like you keeping that myth alive. I believe that people are responsible for their actions and I don't make excuses for their behavior with make believe products like Satan or the Tooth Fairy or whatever. Grow up, already.
” I believe that people are responsible for their actions and I don’t make excuses for their behavior with make believe products like Satan or the Tooth Fairy or whatever. Grow up, already.”
You have a child’s understanding of the issue. The existence of Good and evil in no way relieve the individual of responsibility.
Satan’s greatest trick was convincing people that he doesn’t exist. Wise up.
Honestly...God can do way better than leaving religion in the hands of small minded men and women. But...peace, love and hellfire and brimstone to you, sweetheart. Whatever floats your boat.
“DON’T LET YOUR BOYS EAT OR CONSUME SOY!!!!!!!!!”
Nor your girls...Soy milk is responsible for a lot of premature puberty in young girls.
“boogeyman” ... it’s all hell and damnation...small minded men and women...peace, love and hellfire and brimstone to you...”
Too bad you let small-minded men and women estrange you from God. That’s spiritual suicide.
I can live with that. Now...if you are finished with the satan and hell talk, you are welcome to go waste time somewhere else.
HFCS is evil. The devil hisself invented it.
IT’S TRUE!!!!
I read it right here on FR.
“I can live with that.”
Think so?
“you are welcome to go waste time somewhere else.”
Too bad that trying to reason with you turned out to be a waste of time. Oh, well, you can’t reason a person out of a position that he didn’t reason himself into.
My how Christ-like you are. Jesus would have walked away...free will and all that. You just keep coming with the insults. And then people wonder why their message gets rejected. “Not my fault...the devil made YOU reject me...yadda yadda yadda.”
“Jesus would have walked away.”
You know what He would have done? Amazing. Truly, you are unique among human beings. Surely you owe it to humanity to enlighten us.
“You just keep coming with the insults.”
Why is it that those who deal most in insults are the quickest to level that accusation? I’ve been mildly sarcastic, at worst. You, on the other hand, have been condescendinly insulting throughout this exchange.
“And then people wonder why their message gets rejected.”
Some, perhaps. Not many.
Just as economic, political, and social leftism exist, so also there is theological leftism. Leftists of all stripes reject the truth for the same reasons. No mystery.
“Not my fault...the devil made YOU reject me...yadda yadda yadda.”
You were 32 years as a Christian? Buncombe.
You don’t have the first foggiest notion of how a Christian thinks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.