healthmedicinet

A previous study of about 3,000 women found among bra users, larger cup size
was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal
women, but was partly accounted for by obesity.

A 2005 book entitled ‘Dressed To Kill: The Link between Breast Cancer and
Bras’ also struck fear in the hearts of bra-wearers and lingerie
manufacturers by supporting the idea they cause poisons to accumulate in
breast tissue.

So a University of Washington team analysed 1,513 women in the area, aged
between 55 and 74, just over a thousand of whom had been diagnosed with
either IDC (invasive ductal carcinoma) or ICL (invasive lobular carcinoma),
while the rest were healthy and acted as a control.

A face to face interview was carried out with each to investigate potential
risk factors including their bra cup and band sizes, the age at which they
started regularly wearing a bra, whether they wore underwire bras and the
number of hours per day and days per week they wore a bra at different times
of their lives.

The team found no evidence of a link between breast cancer risk and bra size,
type, or frequency of wearing, reports Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers
Prevention.

Doctoral student Lu Chen, who led the research, said: “There have been
some concerns one of the reasons why breast cancer may be more common in
developed countries compared with developing countries is differences in bra
wearing patterns. Given how common bra wearing is, we thought this was an
important question to address.

“Our study found no evidence wearing a bra increases a woman’s risk for
breast cancer. The risk was similar no matter how many hours per day women
wore a bra, whether they wore a bra with an underwire, or at what age they
first began wearing a bra.”

Added Mr Chen: “There has been some suggestion in the lay media bra
wearing may be a risk factor for breast cancer.

“Some have hypothesized drainage of waste products in and around the breast
may be hampered by bra wearing. Given very limited biological evidence
supporting such a link between bra wearing and breast cancer risk, our
results were not surprising.”

The researchers wrote: “The findings provide reassurance to women that
wearing a bra does not appear to increase the risk for the most common
histological types of postmenopausal breast cancer.”