According to FA for step 2, combined OCPs DECREASE risk of breast cancer, but according to UWorld, they increase risk of both breast and cervical ca....I'm assuming UW is right? What's the reasoning behind this?
thanks
For Steps, generalizations are more accurate than accurate facts.
Cervical Cancer is caused by HPV. Its an epithelial cancer that is not influenced by estrogens. So being on OCPs would not increase the risk of cervical cancer. There might be a correlation with OCP use and whoreism, so girls on OCPs may screw more often, increasing expsoure risk to HPV, but from a pathophysiologic standpoint, they are distinct entities.
OCPs REDUCE the risk of ovarian cancer because there is reduced number of epithelial ruptures.
Uterine Cancer is 100% estrogen based, protected by progesterone. OCPs reduce the risk of uterine cancer.
Breast cancer is caused by exposure to estrogen. Early menarche, late menses, nulliparity, hormone replacement therapy, anything that increases your exposure to estrogen. OCPs, however, do NOT increase the risk of breast cancer because the dose is so low and there is almost always progesterone included. If anything, they stabalize the dose of estrogen and add protective progesterone. I would say that they do not impact the rate of breast cancer, but if some one said they also reduced breast cancer, I'd believe that before increasing risk...
For this one, the OB/GYN who specializes in GYN cancers might have been going a little to far with evidenced based findings in writing the UWorld Question. That is, there might have been a correlation study that showed that, but fundamentally, pathophysiologically, and in practice, OCPs are good, and do not increase the risk of cancer. Think about it this way.
If OCPs INCREASED the risk of cancer, would that be the standard form of brith control for every woman in america? **** no...
