HYPOTHESES - MELATONIN STEROID COMBINATION CONTRACEPTIVES WILL PREVENT BREAST-CANCER

Citation
M. Cohen et al., HYPOTHESES - MELATONIN STEROID COMBINATION CONTRACEPTIVES WILL PREVENT BREAST-CANCER, Breast cancer research and treatment, 33(3), 1995, pp. 257-264
Citations number
47
Categorie Soggetti
Oncology
ISSN journal
01676806
Volume
33
Issue
3
Year of publication
1995
Pages
257 - 264
Database
ISI
SICI code
0167-6806(1995)33:3<257:H-MSCC>2.0.ZU;2-3
Abstract
The use of the conventional combination oral contraceptives (containin g ethinyl-estradiol and a progestin) is associated with reduced risk o f ovarian and endometrial cancer. However, prolonged use of these pill s before first term pregnancy apparently increases the risk of pre men opausal breast cancer. We propose that the pineal gland hormone melato nin, combined with a progestin, as a new and novel oral contraceptive combination might prevent breast cancer in long term users. This hypot hesis is based on the assumption that women have a propensity to devel op breast cancer which correlates with number of ovulatory cycles over their lifetime. In evolution, the phylogenetic point at which women b ecame sensitive to breast cancer evolved at a transfer point of the me chanism of ovulation from seasonal ovulation, which is still common in many mammalian species, to the current human pattern of continuous ov ulatory cycles. We suggest that melatonin/ovarian-steroid contraceptiv e will restore the lost mechanism of endogenous anovulation, and thus, by preventing continuous epithelial breast cell proliferation, will r educe the risk of breast cancer in long-term users.