|
 Researchers asked 2,041 women with ovarian cancer and 2,100 similar
women without ovarian cancer about their talcum powder use. Those
who said they routinely applied talc to their crotches, sanitary
napkins, tampons and underwear had a 33 percent higher risk of
ovarian cancer, according to a report in Epidemiology.
Lead author Dr. Daniel W. Cramer, who heads the Obstetrics and
Gynecology Epidemiology Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in
Boston, has unsuccessfully called for warning labels on talcum
powder.
“This is an easily modified risk factor,” he told Reuters Health by
phone. “Talc is a good drying agent, but women should know that if
it’s used repeatedly, it can get into the vagina and into their
upper genital tract. And I think if they knew that, they wouldn’t
use it.”
Cramer first reported a link between genital talc and ovarian cancer
in 1982. But the current study is the first to confine the
association to premenopausal women and to postmenopausal women who
used hormone therapy – which might help explain earlier
contradictory results on the link between talc and ovarian cancer,
Cramer and his team write.
Cramer has testified as a paid expert in lawsuits against talcum
powder makers. A St. Louis jury last week ordered Johnson and
Johnson to pay $72 million in damages to the family of Jacqueline
Fox. After using the company’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for
more than 35 years, Fox died from ovarian cancer last year at age
62.
Johnson and Johnson maintains that scientific evidence shows that
talc – long marketed for babies’ bottoms – is safe. “With over 100
years of use, few ingredients have the same demonstrated
performance, mildness and safety profile as cosmetic talc,” a
company statement says.
Talc is a moisture-absorbing mineral made of magnesium, silicon and
oxygen. In its natural form, it may contain asbestos, a known
carcinogen. But all commercial products sold in the U.S. have been
asbestos-free since the 1970s.
About 20,000 American women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and
about 14,500 die from it annually, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In 2006, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for
Research on Cancer classified genital talc as possibly carcinogenic.
[to top of second column] |
Nonetheless, the CDC does not list talc as a risk factor for ovarian
cancer.
Dr. Nicolas Wentzensen, head of the clinical epidemiology unit for
the National Cancer Institute, told Reuters Health by email that the
new study strengthens the evidence linking genital talc to the
deadly reproductive cancer. He was not involved with the current
study.
“The recent paper in Epidemiology has provided additional support
for an association between talc use and ovarian cancer from a
case-control study,” he wrote.
Still, Wentzensen isn’t fully convinced of the link because even
this new study was not of the most rigorous possible design.
So-called prospective cohort studies would be particularly strong,
he noted, because they would assess exposure at the start of an
investigation and follow participants over time to see if they
develop the disease.
“Scientific consensus emerges over time, especially in cases like
this, where the results have been somewhat inconsistent,” he said.
“While this recent analysis provides additional evidence supporting
an association of talc and ovarian cancer, it will be important to
test the methods used in this analysis in other data to see if the
findings are confirmed.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1p2yQK2 Epidemiology, online December 17,
2015.
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
