Are Cape Women at Greater Risk Because of Individual Risk Factors such as Family History or Childbearing Patterns?
Silent Spring Institute asked researchers at Harvard University to address this question by reanalyzing data from an ongoing study, the Collaborative Breast Cancer Study. The Collaborative Breast Cancer Study is a large case-control study of breast cancer that includes women from both Cape Cod and non-Cape Massachusetts. For that study, researchers gathered extensive information on individual women, some with breast cancer and some without. These researchers calculated that among women aged 50-74, women living on Cape Cod have a 21% higher risk of breast cancer than women elsewhere in Massachusetts, after taking account of differences in individual risk factors between the two groups. This analysis took account of numerous individual characteristics, including age, number of children, age at birth of first child, age at menarche and menopause, history of benign breast disease, education, and alcohol consumption. This finding suggests that the excess breast cancer incidence on Cape Cod
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