Oral contraceptives: relations to mammary cancer, benign breast lesions, and cervical cancer
Drill, V.A.
Annual Review of Pharmacology 15: 367-385
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0066-4251 PMID: 1096791 DOI: 10.1146/annurev.pa.15.040175.002055Document Number: 504873
The clinical and experimental literature on the relation of estrogen, progestins, and oral contraceptives (OCs) to breast cancer, benign breast lesions, and cervical cancer is reviewed. Experimental studies on the relation of estrogens and OCs to mammary lesions indicate a varying response that largely depends up on the species and strain of animal studied. Various clinical studies have failed to show that estrogens or OCs cause breast cancer; similar findings have been reported in animal studies. Estrogen has been found to increase the incidence of cervical cancer in certain strains of mice, although such an effect has not been demonstrated in other species and man. Most studies agree that OCs do not adversely affect the incidence of abnormal Papanicolaou smears, cervical dysplasia, cervical cancer in situ, or invasive cervical cancer. Progesterone has effectively brought about remission in cases of cervical cancer, as have progestins in cases of breast cancer.