Hair dyes and hormonal contraceptives up chances of breast cancer, says research

Researcher Sanna Heikkinen from the University of Helsinki in Finland, along with Finnish Cancer Registry examined the contribution of the use of and hair dyes and hormonal contraceptives on the breast cancer risk factors.

"The biggest risk factor in breast cancer is high age and known lifestyle-related risk factors include late age at first birth, small number of children, high alcohol consumption and sedentary lifestyle," said Heikkinen.
The research analysed self-reported survey data of 8,000 breast cancer patients and 20,000 controls from Finland.

The results indicated that use of hormonal contraceptives was associated with 32 percent higher breast cancer risk among younger women under 50 when compared to women who never used hormonal contraceptives.

The study also undertakes the amount of opportunistic mammography, which was found to be very common. More than 60 percent of responders reported having had a mammography before the screening age of 50.

"Women should be more extensively informed of the harms of opportunistic mammography, such as accumulating radiation burden and the potential consequences of false positive or negative findings," Heikkinen noted.