Oral contraceptive use and malignant melanoma in Australia

Abstract

(Beral et al., 1977;Adam et al., 1981;Bain et al., 1982;Holly et al., 1983), although the increase was not always statistically significant. We report here the findings of a case control study carried out in New South Wales, Australia, designed to examine these relationships. MethodsThe study design has been described elsewhere (Beral et al., 1982

A pooled analysis of 10 case–control studies of melanoma and oral contraceptive use

“…But, neither of these studies specifically examined current vs past use of oral contraceptives. Another case -control study restricted to women less than 55 years of age found an elevated risk (OR=1.5; 95% CI=1.0 -2.1) in relation to 5 or more years of oral contraceptive use, among those who began use 10 or more years before (Beral et al, 1984). While this study met the eligibility criteria for our analysis, the original data were no longer available.…”

“…Eleven case -control studies met the analysis criteria (Beral et al, 1984;Holman et al, 1984;Gallagher et al, 1985;Green and Bain, 1985;Østerlind et al, 1988;Swerdlow et al, 1986;Elwood et al, 1990;Zanetti et al, 1990;Kirkpatrick et al, 1994;Langholz et al, 2000) and data were available for all but one of these (Beral et al, 1984). The investigators from all of the remaining studies agreed to take part.…”

“…The results of these studies vary. In two studies, an increased risk of melanoma was observed among long-term users who began using oral contraceptives 10 or more years ago (Bain et al, 1982;Beral et al, 1984). In a hospital-based study, Palmer et al (1992) found a modestly elevated risk among current oral contraceptive users that was not statistically significant.…”

“…However, these findings were based on a relatively small number of cases, and another cohort study found no excess risk (Adam et al, 1981). Subsequent case -control and cohort studies (Bain et al, 1982;Holly et al, 1983Holly et al, , 1995Holman et al, 1984;Helmrich et al, 1984;Beral et al, 1984;Gallagher et al, 1985;Green and Bain, 1985;Østerlind et al, 1988;Zanetti et al, 1990;Hannaford et al, 1991;Le et al, 1992;Palmer et al, 1992;Westerdahl et al, 1996;Gefeller et al, 1998;Smith et al, 1998;Feskanich et al, 1999) provided little evidence of an overall excess risk among ever users compared to never users, but a possible increase among long-term users (summarised in (Prentice and Thomas, 1987)). More recently, data from the Nurse's Health Studies indicated a risk of melanoma related to duration of oral contraceptive use, but only among current users (Feskanich et al, 1999).…”

Oral contraceptive use and risk of melanoma in premenopausal women

“…Failure to find an association between melanoma and oral contraceptive use may be due to the broad categorization of 'ever users'. A few studies have reported modest elevations in melanoma risk among women with longer durations of use or with longer times since first use (Bain et al, 1982;Holly et al, 1983;Beral et al, 1984;Le et al, 1992). However, previous research has been limited by the predominance of case-control designs that rely on recall of oral contraceptive use.…”