Abstract
Since 1990, when a hypothesis on intrauterine influences on breast cancer risk was published, several studies have provided supportive, indirect evidence by documenting associations of birth weight and other correlates of the prenatal environment with breast cancer risk in offspring. Recent results from a unique cohort of women with documented exposure to diethylstilbestrol in utero have provided direct evidence in support of a potential role of pregnancy oestrogens on breast cancer risk in offspring.
Highlights
Investigations such as those cited above do not directly address the possible role played by pregnancy oestrogens
The evaluation of whether exposure to pregnancy oestrogens, and conceivably other mammotropic hormones, increases breast cancer risk in offspring has relied on correlates of pregnancy oestrogens
The overall pattern does not come as a surprise because breast cancer among young women is known frequently to have genetic roots [17], so an excess risk on account of intrauterine exposure to oestrogens is likely to become more evident with advancing age
Summary
The evaluation of whether exposure to pregnancy oestrogens, and conceivably other mammotropic hormones, increases breast cancer risk in offspring has relied on correlates of pregnancy oestrogens. The risk for developing breast cancer in the earliest report [13], when women exposed to DES in utero were still very young (38 years on the average), was barely 18% higher in exposed to nonexposed women.
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