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Vol. 12, No. 5 · July 2008 · Editor: Martha L. Golar, Esq.
JALBCA SELECTS SUSAN B. SOLOMON INTERNS FOR 2008-2009 JALBCA’s Susan B. Solomon Internships were awarded this year to two law students, Corinne C. Nippert and Janet N. Eshaghoff. Both women will work with JALBCA throughout the year in connection with its Annual Symposium and other educational and community outreach activities. Ms. Nippert is presently a student at New York University School of Law and has served as Staff Editor of the New York University Law Review. She previously served as a summer judicial intern to Hon. Eileen Bransten. Ms. Eshaghoff is presently a student at Hofstra University School of Law. In recent years, she worked with certain local law firms that practice in the real estate and construction law areas. The JALBCA internship was created in memory of Susan B. Solomon, who had served as JALBCA’s Secretary and was co-chair of its Committee of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY). Susan devoted endless hours to making our Courthouse Alert a success for many years. A member of both the Brooklyn and New York Chapters of WBASNY, Susan was also active in the courthouse community. NEW FEDERAL LAW: GENETIC INFORMATION NONDISCRIMINATION ACT Effective November 21, 2009, new restrictions will apply to genetic information used for employment and health benefit purposes as a result of the enactment of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)(Pub. L. No. 110-233). The bill had passed the Senate unanimously and in the House it passed by a vote of 414 to 1 and was signed into law by President Bush on May 21, 2008. The Senate sponsor of the S.358 was Olympia Snowe of Maine and the House sponsor of H.R. 493 was Louise Slaughter of New York. There was a coalition which had opposed the legislation as overly broad, among other things, and this coalition included such groups as the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Retail Federation, the Society for Human Resource Management, and the United States Chamber of Commerce. The new law protects against discrimination by health insurers and employers in the following ways: The various provisions in turn amend relevant provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, the Public Health Service Act, the Internal Revenue Code, and the Social Security Act (SSA). For example, SSA is amended to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to revise HIPAA privacy regulations in order to (1) treat genetic information as health information and (2) prohibit the use or disclosure by a group health plan, health insurance coverage, or Medicare supplemental policy of genetic information about an individual for underwriting purposes. INFERTILITY TREATMENT: IS THERE A RELATIONSHIP WITH BREAST CANCER RISK? NOTE: This article has been authored by Barbour S. Warren, PhD and Carol M. Devine, PhD, Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14886 and is re-printed with their permission. Summary Accompanying a societal shift to delayed childbearing, there has been an increase in the number of couples seeking infertility treatment. Most studies of the short-term effects of infertility treatment among women have indicated that it is generally not associated with the risk of breast cancer. A number of different drugs have been used in these treatments; some studies have examined these drugs for an association with breast cancer risk. To date, these studies show conflicting results, and more study is needed before the presence or absence of breast cancer risk can be determined. The long-term effects of infertility treatments on breast cancer risk are unknown. Most studies to date have evaluated treatment of less than 10 years duration and groups of women at ages where breast cancer is less common. Monitoring of women who have received infertility treatments should continue. Infertility Infertility is a common condition. Estimates of the percentage of women of reproductive age (15 to 44) who have not conceived a child after 12 months of trying, range between 8% and 20%(1, 2). A significant contributor to these estimates is the societal shift toward delayed childbearing over the last three decades. This shift is made clear by the changes in age-specific birth rates. Between 1970 and 2005, the birth rate among women aged 20 to 24 years declined 39% and the rate among women 25 to 29 years declined 20%. In contrast, the birth rate increased among women 30-34 years by 31%, among women 35-39 years by 46%, and among women 40- 4 years by 12%. (3). There was also an increase in late age at first birth (a risk factor for breast cancer). Over the 16-year period from 1970 to 1986, the number of first births to mothers in their 30s more than quadrupled, while first births to women between ages 40 and 44 doubled. Maternal age plays an important role in infertility. As women age there is a stepped decrease in fertility. Women are most fertile around age 20. From this age fertility steadily declines to about age 35, at which point it transitions into a stage of rapid decline. This step is followed by a dramatic fall after age 40, such that the likelihood of a failed pregnancy at age 45 is 75%. This is a more than six times the risk for women under 20. Use of fertility services has increased greatly since their introduction in the late 1960s. The use of fertility drugs increased 1.9 fold between 1973 and 1991. Data from a 1995 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control indicated that 17% of women 25 to 34 sought infertility services of some type. This value increased to 23% for women between ages 35 and 45 (4). Possible associations between infertility treatment and breast cancer risk: direct and indirect effects A number of breast cancer risk factors can possibly come into play with regard to breast cancer risk and infertility treatment. Breast cancer risk may be increased by factors associated with pregnancy and childbirth themselves, or through direct effects of the infertility treatments. Breast cancer risk factors associated with pregnancy and childbirth include pregnancy itself, age at first birth and maternal age for subsequent births. Pregnancy, while ultimately protective against breast cancer risk for younger mothers, is associated with an increase in breast cancer risk for a period of about 10 years following childbirth (5). This effect is especially prominent and may last longer in mothers older than 35 years. Maternal age has further importance. Age of first birth is well established to be associated with breast cancer risk and is related to a progressive increase in risk. Relative risks as large as 3.7 fold have been reported for comparisons of women at the extremes of reproductive age (6). A recent study of a cohort of 1.5 million Danish women strongly supports the idea that, above and beyond the effects of a first birth, all births to older mothers are associated with increased breast cancer risk. The investigators reported that while childbirth among young mothers (age 25 to 30) was associated with a decrease in breast cancer risk, childbirth among women older than age 30 was associated with a progressive increase in breast cancer risk as age at childbirth increased. The level of increase depended on the birth number; that is first, second, third, etc., but increased risk was associated with all births (7). Most studies have reported a weak or no relationship between infertility itself and breast cancer risk. In addition, studies of different types of infertility showed no consistent associations with breast cancer risk (8-13). Direct effects of infertility treatments may have a role in breast cancer risk. The major goal of most infertility treatments is the stimulation of ovulation resulting in, for most protocols, “superovulation,” the maturation and release of multiple eggs from the ovary. It is well recognized that breast cancer risk is higher in women who undergo more ovulation cycles over a lifetime (14). This effect may result from changes associated with ovulation, which might potentially be greater during superovulation cycles. Alternatively, or in addition, ovulation stimulation affects estrogen and progestin levels. This may be important because increased exposure to estrogens and progestins has been clearly linked to increased breast cancer risk (15). Commonly used infertility drugs, that contain or affect the release of hormones controlling ovulation, lead to increased levels of estrogens and progestins (16, 17). However, it has also been argued that such changes do not attain high enough hormone levels or extend long enough to be likely to cause such deleterious effects (18). On the other hand, two of the commonly used infertility drugs, clomophene citrate and human chorionic gonadotrophin, have been considered as preventive treatments for breast cancer (19, 20). Clomophene citrate has a similar structure and activity to the estrogen antagonist, tamoxifen. Tamoxifen is commonly used for adjuvant treatment of breast cancer and clomophene citrate has also been used in this manner. Studies in animals indicate that human chorionic gonadotrophin, a hormone produced during pregnancy, can have a protective effect against breast cancer and such use has been proposed for humans (21). Thus, these fertility drugs could potentially decrease breast cancer risk. Infertility treatment and breast cancer risk: many study types and designs A diverse collection of studies has examined infertility treatments and breast cancer risk. This includes five clinical case reports (22-26), four case control (retrospective) studies (17, 27-29) and 16 cohort (prospective) studies (8-11, 24, 30-40). The design of the studies differed greatly. They differed in the sources of study participants: some focused on women undergoing in-vitro fertilization, some collected subjects from infertility clinics in general, and others examined women in existing cohorts. Differences also existed in how information was collected. The most accurate studies used medical records, while others used questionnaires and interviews with the women themselves. Determination of risk requires the use of a comparison group. For example, to ideally examine the effects of infertility treatments on breast cancer risk, a group of infertile women with breast cancer who had received infertility treatment would be compared to an identical group of infertile women without breast cancer who had not received infertility treatment. Assembly of these ideal comparison groups is not possible, but if enough information about the breast cancer risk factor profiles is collected for both groups, the comparison can be adjusted to account for group differences. Since infertility may affect breast cancer risk, better designed studies in this area used infertile women as a comparison group, others used the general population. Some studies also did a better job of adjusting for other differences in breast cancer risk. One key risk factor in these studies was whether the women in both groups had children and if so how many. This factor could differ greatly between the treated and the comparison groups. Only a few studies did this careful analysis. Finally, the studies also differed to a large extent in the number of women with breast cancer who were included in the analysis. Risk is a statistical calculation and, in general, the more subjects examined the more reliable the results. Most of the studies were limited by the fact that they studied less than 50 cases of breast cancer. Only a few of the studies had more than 100 cases. Results of existing studies Overall, the majority of the studies of associations between infertility treatment and breast cancer risk did not detect an association between the two. The results of the largest and best designed studies supported this result. However, since the follow-up time for the majority of these studies was less than 10 years, these studies have really only evaluated the short-term effects of these treatments. This is all the more important as several studies found increased risk of breast cancer among women that were monitored for more than 20 years. Studies that examined the association of specific infertility drugs and treatments with breast cancer risk had conflicting and inconclusive results; some studies reported increased breast cancer risk, others decreased risk, and still others no risk association among women who had those specific treatments for infertility. Inconclusive results were also reported for the examination of the risks associated with treatment dosages and number of treatment cycles. Need for continued monitoring Continued monitoring of infertility treatments is warranted for two reasons. First, most of the existing studies had short follow-up periods. Second, the majority of the study groups included mostly premenopausal women. Since 80% of breast cancer cases occur after menopause, a change in risk may not yet be apparent. Finally, monitoring should also include evaluation of different drugs and treatments. While most of the treatments do act on the same pathway for control of reproduction, this pathway is complex and the treatments are diverse. This means that specific treatments could have different effects on breast cancer risk. Bibliography 1. Guzick, D.S. and Swan, S. (2006). The decline of infertility: apparent or real? Fertil Steril 86, 524-526. 2. Stephen, E.H. and Chandra, A. (2006). Declining estimates of infertility in the United States: 1982- 2002. Fertil Steril 86, 516-523. 3. Martin, J.A., et al. (2007). Births: final data for 2005. Natl Vital Stat Rep 56, 1-103. 4. Abma, J.C., et al. (1997). Fertility, family planning, and women’s health: new data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth. Vital Health Stat 23 19, 1-114. 5. Britt, K., Ashworth, A. and Smalley, M. (2007). Pregnancy and the risk of breast cancer. Endocr Relat Cancer 14, 907-933. 6. Merrill, R.M., et al. (2005). Cancer risk associated with early and late maternal age at first birth. Gynecol Oncol, 96, 583-593. 7. Wohlfahrt, J. and Melbye, M. (2001). Age at any birth is associated with breast cancer risk. Epidemiology 12, 68-73. 8. Brinton, L.A., et al. (2004). Breast cancer risk associated with ovulation- stimulating drugs. Hum Reprod 19, 2005-2013. 9. Lerner-Geva, L., et al. (2006). Infertility, ovulation induction treatments and the incidence of breast cancer – a historical prospective cohort of Israeli women. Breast Cancer Res Treat 100, 201-212. 10. Terry, K.L., et al. (2006). A prospective study of infertility due to ovulatory disorders, ovulation induction, and incidence of breast cancer. Arch Intern Med 166, 2484-2489. 11. Venn, A., et al. (1999). Risk of cancer after use of fertility drugs with in-vitro fertilisation. Lancet 354, 1586-1590. 12. Garland,M., et al. (1998).Menstrual cycle characteristics and history of ovulatory infertility in relation to breast cancer risk in a large cohort of US women. Am J Epidemiol 147, 636-643. 13. Moseson, M., et al. (1993). The influence of medical conditions associated with hormones on the risk of breast cancer. Int J Epidemiol, 22, 1000-1009. 14. Henderson, B.E., et al. (1985). Do regular ovulatory cycles increase breast cancer risk? Cancer 56, 1206- 1208. 15. Yager, J.D. and Davidson, N.E. (2006). Estrogen carcinogenesis in breast cancer. N Engl J Med 354, 270-282. 16. Brinton, L.A., et al. (2005). Ovulation induction and cancer risk. Fertil Steril 83, 261-274. 17. Burkman, R.T., et al. (2003). Infertility drugs and the risk of breast cancer: findings from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Women’s Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences Study. Fertil Steril 79, 844-851. 18. Healy, D.L. and Venn, A. (2003). Infertility medications and the risk of breast cancer. Fertil Steril 79, 852-854. 19. (2006). Use of clomiphene citrate in women. Fertil Steril 86, S187-193. 20. Bernstein, L., et al. (1995). Treatment with human chorionic gonadotropin and risk of breast cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 4, 437-440. 21. Russo, J. and Russo, I.H. (1994). Toward a physiological approach to breast cancer prevention. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 4, 353- 364. 22. Arbour, L., et al. (1994). In-vitro fertilisation and family history of breast cancer. Lancet 344, 610-611. 23. Bolton, P.M. (1977). Bilateral breast cancer associated with clomiphene. Lancet 2, 1176. 24. Brzezinski, A., et al. (1994). Ovarian stimulation and breast cancer: is there a link? Gynecol Oncol 52, 292-295. 25. Jourdain, O., et al. (1996). Breast cancer and in vitro fertilization. About 32 cases. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 67, 47-52. 26. Unkila-Kallio, L., et al. (1997). Malignant tumors of the ovary or the breast in association with infertility: a report of thirteen cases. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 76, 177-181. 27. Braga, C., et al. (1996). Fertility treatment and risk of breast cancer. Hum Reprod 11, 300-303. 28. Gammon, M.D. and Thompson, W.D. (1990). Infertility and breast cancer: a population-based case control study. Am J Epidemiol 132, 708-716. 29. Ricci, E., et al. (1999). Fertility drugs and the risk of breast cancer. Hum Reprod 14, 1653-1655. 30. Dor, J., et al. (2002). Cancer incidence in a cohort of infertile women who underwent in vitro fertilization. Fertil Steril 77, 324-327. 31. Doyle, P., et al. (2002). Cancer incidence following treatment for infertility at a clinic in the UK. Hum Reprod 17, 2209-2213. 32. Gauthier, E., X. Paoletti, and Clavel- Chapelon, F. (2004). Breast cancer risk associated with being treated for infertility: results from the French E3N cohort study. Hum Reprod 19, 2216-2221. 33. Lerner-Geva, L., et al. (2003). The possible association between in vitro fertilization treatments and cancer development. Int J Gynecol Cancer 13, 23-27. 34. Modan, B., et al. (1998). Cancer incidence in a cohort of infertile women. Am J Epidemiol 147, 1038- 1042. 35. Ron, E., et al. (1987). Cancer incidence in a cohort of infertile women. Am J Epidemiol 125, 780-790. 36. Rossing, M.A., et al. (1996). Risk of breast cancer in a cohort of infertile women. Gynecol Oncol 60, 3-7. 37. Venn, A., et al. (1995). Breast and ovarian cancer incidence after infertility and in vitro fertilisation. Lancet 346, 995-1000. 38. Potashnik, G., et al. (1999). Fertility drugs and the risk of breast and ovarian cancers: results of a long-term follow-up study. Fertil Steril 71, 853-859. 39. Jensen, A., et al. (2007). Risk of breast cancer after exposure to fertility drugs: results from a large Danish cohort study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 16, 1400-1407. 40. Pappo, I., et al. (2008). The possible association between IVF and breast cancer incidence. Ann Surg Oncol 15, 1048-1055. Calendar / Contacts ELLEN’S RUN -- SAVE THE DATE Eleventh Annual Ellen’s Run Sunday, August 17, 2008 9:00 a.m. rain or shine East Hampton High School ADELPHI NY STATEWIDE BREAST CANCER Hotline & Support Program Adelphi University School of Social Work Garden City, NY 11530 www.adelphi.edu/nysbreastcancer/index.html CancerCare 275 Seventh Avenue NY NY 10001 www.cancercare.org 1-800-813-HOPE (4673) MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER Post-Treatment Resource Program Educational Forums 215 E. 68th St., Ground Fl. New York, NY 10021 212-717-3527 www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/19409.cfm Bendheim Medicine Center 1429 First Avenue (at 74th St.) SHARE (Self-Help for Women with Breast or Ovarian Cancer) 1501 Broadway, 704A New York, NY 11530 www.sharecancersupport.org 212-719-0364
JALBCA does not endorse the content or efficacy of any workshops or programs listed in the Calendar of Events; listings are for informational purposes only, so that our readership is aware of current offerings. |
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