Associations of Premenopausal Hysterectomy and Oophorectomy With Breast Cancer Among Black and White Women (North Carolina)

Medscape
 Associations of Premenopausal Hysterectomy and Oophorectomy With Breast Cancer Among Black and White Women: The Carolina Breast Cancer Study, 1993–2001

 In the present study, our objective was to assess the association between premenopausal gynecologic surgeries and risk of breast cancer in a population-representative sample of black and white women living in the US South, a region in which hysterectomy rates are particularly high.^[1,13,21] We examined whether associations differed by race, breast cancer hormone-receptor status, or use of MHT.

  In summary, this research adds further evidence that premenopausal hysterectomy and oophorectomy may reduce the long-term risk of breast cancer. Further, the higher prevalence of premenopausal surgery among black women indicates that these surgeries could be an important contributor to race-specific trends in breast cancer incidence. Historically higher rates of premenopausal hysterectomy and oophorectomy may have transiently lowered breast cancer rates among black women. As hysterectomy rates decline, breast cancer incidence may increase among older black women and in the US South, a trend that has been observed in recent surveillance.^[34,37] Monitoring the long-term effects of changing clinical practice in gynecologic surgery may inform strategies to mitigate the growing breast cancer burden among US black women.