The Nation - News from March 25, 1988

Despite lingering concerns about oral contraceptives, a government study of more than 9,000 women concluded that early birth control pill use does not increase the risk of breast cancer in middle age. Federal researchers cited the finding as another in a long line of studies suggesting that earlier fears about cancer and the pill were unwarranted. “This is quite a dose of assurance,” said Dr. Bruce Stadel of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Md. Stadel and his colleagues analyzed data from the massive federal cancer and steroid hormone study involving 4,714 women with breast cancer and 4,540 similar women who were free of disease.