Hormonal Contraceptives and Brain Cancer !

Interesting article I found while browsing Medscape.com linking Oral contraceptives with brain cancer. First let us talk a little bit about brain cancer.

A brain cancer or intracranial neoplasm it is when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant or cancerous tumors and benign tumors.  Cancerous tumors can be divided into primary tumors that started within the brain and those that spread from somewhere else known as brain metastasis tumors. All types of brain tumors may produce symptoms that vary depending on the part of the brain involved. These may include headaches, seizures, problem with vision, vomiting, and mental changes. The headache is classically worst in the morning and goes away with vomiting. More specific problems may include difficulty in walking, speaking and with sensation. As the disease progresses unconsciousness may occur. 

An association between hormonal contraceptives and an increased risk for glioma in younger women has been found in a Danish nationwide case–control study.

-          A glioma is a type of tumor that starts in the brain or spine. It is called a glioma because it arises from glial cells. The most common site of gliomas is the brain. Gliomas make up about 30% of all brain and central nervous system tumors and 80% of all malignant brain tumors. -

That risk increases with the duration of use, David Gaist, MD, from Odense University Hospital and the University of South Denmark, and colleagues report in their study, published today in the print edition of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
"A nearly two-fold increased risk of glioma was observed among long-term users of hormonal contraceptives," they write.
However, "it is important to keep this apparent increase in risk in context," Dr Gaist said in a statement.
"While we found a statistically significant association between hormonal contraceptive use and glioma risk, a risk/benefit evaluation would still favor the use of hormonal contraceptives in eligible users," he explained.
He added that although the findings of this study must be interpreted with care, "we feel it is an important contribution and we hope that our findings will spark further research on the relationship between female hormonal agents and glioma risk."
Search for Glioma in Health Registries
Oral contraceptives are known to influence the risk for certain cancers, but few studies have examined any link to central nervous system tumors, write Dr Gaist and colleagues.
The researchers used Danish administrative and health registries to identify all women in Denmark 15 to 49 years of age with a first-time diagnosis of glioma from 2000 to 2009. The registries provided information on hormonal contraceptive prescriptions filled from 1995 to 2009.
The researchers defined "nonuse" as one or no hormonal contraceptive prescriptions, and "ever use" as at least two prescriptions.
In the ever-use category, "current/recent use" was defined as at least one prescription in the 2 to 5 years before the initial diagnosis of glioma, and "past use" was defined as no recorded prescription in the 2 to 5 years before initial diagnosis.
The 317 patients in the case group and the 2126 in the control group were similar in age, parity, and years of schooling.
Overall, 58.7% of case subjects and 50.1% of control subjects were ever users (P = .004). Among ever users, the odds ratio (OR) for glioma was 1.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2 - 2.0).
The risk for glioma was higher for current/recent use (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.3 - 2.4) than for past use (OR, 1.2; 95% CI, 0.8 - 2.0).
The risk was elevated for oral contraceptives consisting of a combination of estrogen and progestogen (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.0 - 1.8), but was highest for progestogen-only contraceptives (OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.6 - 5.1). The use of both types of contraceptives was also associated with increased risk (OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 0.8 - 3.0).

The risk for glioma increased as the use of oral contraceptives of any type increased. With use for less than 1 year, the OR was 1.4 (95% CI, 0.8 - 2.3); for 5 years or more of use, the OR was 1.9 (95% CI, 1.2 - 2.9).

Resources:
- Medscape.com         
-Wikipedia.org

If you have any question, I’ll be glad to answer it.