There is no scientific basis to link wearing bras or using
deodorant to the development of breast cancer -
Dr. Clive Thomas, consultant general surgeon.
JUNK E-MAILS, making claims of a link between the development of breast cancer and wearing bras and using deodorant, may sound very convincing but, Dr. Clive Thomas, consultant general surgeon, stresses that there is no scientific basis to make these claims.
"I have heard it before and patients have asked me about it as well, but there is no hard evidence to support that theory. If that were so, breast cancer would be far more common, because bras are common to a number of women. They wear them for a number of years..." he said.
Dr. Thomas, who is also a consultant surgeon at the Jamaica Cancer Society, said too, that if deodorant wearing was linked to the development of breast cancer, then, how would one explain the product's widespread use around the world and yet, research points to a geographical distribution to breast cancer.
"You see, there is a multifactorial approach to cause and all the studies have shown so far, that there is no significant link between the use of deodorant and the development of breast cancer. Neither deodorant use nor wearing of bras whether ribbed bras or soft bras have been proven. Some people say that (wearing) the ribbed bras presents an increased risk because it causes more trauma to the breast, and that has not been proven at all," he stressed.
RADIATION
Rumour also has it that exposure to radiation during the breast X-ray (the mammogram) causes breast cancer in women. However, Dr. Thomas indicates that studies have shown that there is no significant increase in risk in the women who have undergone mammography as long as these women are not below age 35.
"We try not to do mammograms before the age of 35. First of all, the mammogram doesn't show the breast well below the age of 35 because, the tissues in the breast are very dense and you cannot identify abnormalities very easily. Therefore, in the younger patients, we use ultrasound to identify any abnormality in the breast, and, only if you have a very strong suspicion, especially somebody with a family history or the lump appears to be very abnormal, that you would go on to do a mammogram before that age," the breast cancer expert explained.
Therefore, according to Dr. Thomas, the general rule on the use of mammography, is that, while there is no evidence to suggest that radiation of the breast increases breast cancer incidence, there may be a small risk of increase in malignancy in younger women (under age 35) and since this diagnostic procedure has not been shown to be beneficial to these young women, the usual advice is not to carry out mammograms on them.
Annual mammograms, he said are recommended for women at the critical age of 50 and above (as the peak incidence for breast cancer falls around age 50); baseline mammograms are recommended at about age 40 and women above 35 can undergo mammograms every other year, to minimise the radiation risk.
