Bras or Bra-Wearing Habits and Breast Cancer has No Link

As per a new study, women’s bras are off the hook, when we talk about the risk of breast cancer. For determining if the concerns that have surfaced in the past over the risk of breast cancer due to wearing bras, all types of bras that are worn by women, were looked at by the researchers. They also looked at how long the women wore them and when did they start wearing them.

No evidence was found that wearing a bra has an association with breast cancer said Lu Chen, the author of study and a researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. She is a doctoral student in epidemiology at University of Washington School of Public Health.

Chen took the decision of looking at the issue because media reports suggest that lymph circulation and drainage may be hampered and it will interfere with waste removal, thereby boosting the risk of breast cancer. In a book that was published in the year 2005, authors claim that there is evidence of a link between risk of breast cancer and bras. She said that there are concerns of breast cancer being prevalent in developed countries, where women are more likely to wear bras. Chen noted that the topic has been rarely studied scientifically.

This new research was funded by the U.S National Cancer Institute and is published on the 5^th of September in the Journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. More than 1,000 women, diagnosed with breast cancer between the years 2000-2004 were evaluated by Chen’s team and they were compared to 469 women, without breast cancer.

All the participants of the study were past menopause and were of the age 55-74. Those having breast cancer had 1 of the 2 common types- invasive ductal cancer or invasive lobular cancer. Information was gathered about the bras they wore, the bra cup size, how long they were worn and when did they start wearing. Chen found that the bra wearing habits didn’t have a link to the risk of breast cancer.