Pill boosts cancer risk in some women

Women who took oral contraceptives before 1975, and whose mother or sister had breast cancer between 1944 and 1952, have triple the likelihood of getting breast cancer as compared with similar women who didn’t take the pill, according to a study in the Oct. 11 Journal of the American Medical Association.

Daughters and sisters of women who had breast cancer a half-century ago and who have at least two other relatives with breast cancer were nearly five times as likely to get breast cancer if they took the pill than if they didn’t.