CHAPEL HILL -- U.S. women who live on farms are less likely to develop breast cancer than other women, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study shows. Pesticide exposure among farm women appears to reduce the protective effects of such work, however, and boosts their breast cancer risk slightly, researchers say.
"We found that farming overall is protective against breast cancer when compared with the general population," said Dr. Eric Duell, a former doctoral student at the UNC-CH School of Public Health. "It's nice to find that maybe there's something out there that is actually decreasing women's breast cancer risk."
A report on the detailed study -- the first of its kind among farm women -- appears in the September issue of the journal Epidemiology. Besides Duell, now a fellow at Harvard University, UNC-CH authors are Dr. Robert Millikan, assistant professor of epidemiology; Dr. David Savitz, professor and chair of epidemiology; programming assistant Joanna Smith and Dr. Michael Schell, research associate professor at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Researchers investigated 862 cases of breast cancer among women living in 24 eastern and central N.C. counties and compared them with 790 women without breast cancer who lived in the same areas, Duell said. About half the women, who ranged in age from 20 to 74, were black.
Detailed health and work histories, including information on all farm work since age 7, crops and livestock grown and pesticides used, were available. That's because all subjects are participating in UNC-CH's larger ongoing Carolina Breast Cancer Study.
Overall, women who had farmed more than 23 years had about a 40 percent lower risk of breast cancer than women who had never lived on farms, the scientists found. Those who farmed longer were better protected, analyses showed, while those with less agricultural experience were less protected.
"We should continue to study this group of far
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Contact: David Williamson
rdtokids@email.unc.edu
919-962-8596
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
11-Sep-2000