Abstract
The risk of breast cancer associated with delivering a twin birth was examined in a population-based nested case-control study of nearly 4800 Swedish women with breast cancer and 47000 age-matched control subjects. All were aged less than 50 years and parous. After adjustment for age at first birth and parity, a 29% reduction in breast cancer risk was observed in mothers of twins relative to those who were not (odds ratio = 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.55-0.91). These results provide evidence that women who bear twins are at reduced risk of breast cancer, one explanation for which may be their unusual levels of hormonal exposure.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 24 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $10.79 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Murphy, M., Broeders, M., Carpenter, L. et al. Breast cancer risk in mothers of twins. Br J Cancer 75, 1066–1068 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1997.181
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1997.181
This article is cited by
-
The relationship between twin births and maternal risk of breast cancer: a meta-analysis
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment (2012)
-
Pregnancy characteristics and maternal breast cancer risk: a review of the epidemiologic literature
Cancer Causes & Control (2010)