Wearing a Bra Not Linked to Increased Breast Cancer Risk in Postmenopausal Women

A latest study showed that there is no link between wearing a bra and increasing risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

Breast cancer is listed as the most common type of cancer among American women as 1 in 8 women in the U.S. develops invasive breast cancer. According to the Breast Cancer Org, it was estimated that in 2013, nearly 232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancer would be diagnosed in U.S. women. It is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among African-American women. It is the second-leading type of killer cancer (among women) in the U.S.

The participants with the two most common subtypes of breast cancer were from Seattle-Puget Sound Metropolitan area. The study also included 469 women without any breast cancer who served as controls. All the participants were in their postmenopausal phase - aged between 55-74 years.

"There have been some concerns that one of the reasons why breast cancer may be more common in developed countries compared with developing countries is differences in bra-wearing patterns," said Lu Chen, MPH, a researcher in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a doctoral student in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health. "

Each subject was interviewed in person to get details on demographics, family history and reproductive history. Apart from this, the women were asked a series of structured questions that would help the researchers assess the participant's lifetime pattern of bra wearing.

The study led by researchers at the University of Washington's School of Public Health, was a population-based case-control study. They found no evidence that supports the relation between wearing a bra and breast cancer. They based their finding on studying 454 women with invasive ductal carcinoma and 590 women with invasive lobular carcinoma.

The researchers found that the risk of breast cancer remained the same irrespective of how many hours per day women wore a bra or whether they wore a bra with an underwire or the age at which they first began wearing a bra. There are studies that suggest wearing a bra cuts the risk for breast cancer. According to a few, drainage of waste products in and around the breast may be hampered by wearing a bra. There was little evidence that highlighted the link between wearing a bra and breast cancer.

This latest finding offers reassurance to postmenopausal women that bra does not up the risk of breast cancer.

The study was documented in journal Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.