Philippa Taylor

More evidence of a possible link between abortion and breast cancer

Philippa Taylor was Head of Public Policy at CMF until September 2019 and now works with CARE. She has an MA in Bioethics from St Mary’s University College and a background in policy work on bioethics and family issues.
The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of CMF.

breast_cancer

The authors of a newly published research paper on the genetic regulation of breast cancer formation have made a surprising admission. It is hidden away in an interview the authors gave about their findings, where they state, almost in passing, that:

‘…there is an increased risk of breast cancer if the first pregnancy occurs after age 30 as well as in women who lose their baby during pregnancy or have an abortion.’

The research authors from Georgia Regents University explain as follows:

‘When the fetus is lost before term, immature cells that were destined to become breast cells, can more easily become cancer,’ said Rajneesh Pathania, the study’s first author.

The most remarkable aspect of this new research and associated interview is the apparent confirmation that abortion increases breast cancer risk, and the almost casual way in which this truth is acknowledged, as though everyone knows this association!

I blogged on the controversial abortion breast cancer (ABC) link last year, mainly to highlight a large Chinese meta-analysis (more details below) and I drew the cautious conclusion that the jury is still out on the existence of a link but it is undoubtedly disputed, and it is NOT justified to claim that evidence for a link is non-existent or misinformed.

The new research and acknowledgement seems to me to put the ball back into the court of those who deny any existence of a link.

So what does the new paper, DNMT1 is essential for mammary and cancer stem cell maintenance and tumorigenesis, actually find?

The paper looks at the genetic regulation of breast cancer formation. The authors found that the gene DNMT1 which is essential to maintaining breast, or mammary, stem cells, that enable normal rapid growth of the breasts during pregnancy, also produces stem cells that may predispose to breast cancer. It regulates another gene, ISL1, which is a tumour suppressor and control for stem cells. The research provides potentially useful findings for the understanding of, and treatment for, breast cancer, including offering a possible therapeutic target for breast cancer treatment, which I am, of course, encouraged to see.

However the focus of this blog is the possible link between abortion and breast cancer and in this respect the authors interview, here, is particularly interesting:

‘Mammary stem cells help maintain the breasts during puberty as well as pregnancy, both periods of dynamic breast cell growth. During pregnancy, breasts may generate 300 times more cells as they prepare for milk production. This mass production may also include tumor cells, a mutation that seems to increase with age,’ Thangaraju said. ‘When the fetus is lost before term, immature cells that were destined to become breast cells, can more easily become cancer,’ said Rajneesh Pathania, a GRU graduate student and the study’s first author. (emphasis added).

While the exact reasons remain unclear, there is an increased risk of breast cancer if the first pregnancy occurs after age 30 as well as in women who lose their baby during pregnancy or have an abortion. Women who never have children also are at increased risk, while multiple term pregnancies further decrease the risk, according to the American Cancer Society.’

The possible existence of a link between induced abortion and a subsequent risk of developing breast cancer has been widely dismissed, including by the RCOG in their 2011 report, ‘The care of women requesting induced abortion’:

Women should be informed that induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk’ (emphasis added). This, therefore, is routinely told to women requesting an abortion.

My blog from last year has more background to the research into the abortion breast cancer link and debate. But it is worth noting again that the issue has always been highly controversial, despite the RCOG dismissal of any possible link.

Moreover, in 2014 (after the RCOG report was published) a large meta-analysis of 36 studies on abortion published by Huang concluded that induced abortion is significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer – by as much as 44% after one induced abortion and even more as the number of abortions increases.

I wonder how many women with an unwanted pregnancy would like to be informed that abortion is a known risk factor for breast cancer? Even though this is not yet universally accepted, every woman considering abortion surely has a right to know there is on-going debate on this issue.

Which is why we have produced a new, carefully researched, two page briefing paper on Abortion: Risks and Complications, outlining some of the risk factors for abortion, based solely on peer reviewed research findings.

An ‘informed choice’ is only truly possible if women have all the information on all the choices before them.

Posted by Philippa Taylor
CMF Head of Public Policy

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