DOES ORAL-CONTRACEPTIVE USE INCREASE THE RISK OF BREAST-CANCER IN WOMEN WITH BRCA1 BRCA2 MUTATIONS MORE THAN IN OTHER WOMEN/

We conducted a study to determine whether the risk of breast cancer as sociated with oral contraceptive (OC) use is higher in women with BRCA 1/BRCA2 mutations than in other women by examining whether breast canc er patients with these mutations were more likely than breast cancer p atients without mutations in BRCA1/BRCA2 to have used OCs. We tested f or BRCA1 185delAG and 5382insC and BRCA2 6174delT mutations in a popul ation-based sample of 50 young Ashkenazi Jewish breast cancer patients . Nine patients (18%) had a BRCA1 mutation, and five patients (10%) ha d a BRCA2 mutation. Long-term OC use (>48 months) before a first full- term pregnancy was associated with an elevated risk of being classifie d as a mutBRCA carrier (odds ratio, 7.8; trend, P = 0.004). The result s suggest that OC use may increase the risk of breast cancer more in m utBRCA carriers than in noncarriers; however, they must be interpreted with caution given the small sample size.