Pregnancy the New Super-Power? Study Shows Having Babies Reduces Breast Cancer Risk
As every woman knows, hormonal changes are a seemingly ongoing phenomena in the female body. These changes occur at the onset of puberty, during pregnancy, at menopause and countless times in between. However, the hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy may influence the chance of developing
breast cancer later in life.
Researchers have identified a gene expression pattern that will help them understand why pregnancy reduces breast cancer risk.
Differing patterns among women.This gene expression pattern differs between post-menopausal women who gave birth to children and post-menopausal women who did not. Though pregnancy causes differentiation in breast tissue, the tissue of post-menopausal women looks practically the same whether they've had children or not. This fact led scientists to determine exactly how and why pregnancy provides breast cancer protection throughout a woman's life.
Ricardo Lopez de Cicco, PhD and senior research associate states, "When a woman has multiple pregnancies beginning at a relatively young age, we see a protective effect against breast cancer. In this study, we identified a post-pregnancy genomic signature that can still be seen even after menopause. That is very important because it could begin to help us understand why women who have children early benefit from a...
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