"Early pregnancy, between the ages of 20 and 30, has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer later in life. The reason why has stumped scientists for years. Now, a research group from UC Santa Cruz has found evidence suggesting that early pregnancy can permanently change the way breast cells age, preventing the accumulation of a type of cells that may contribute to tumor growth."
"Shaheen Sikandar, an assistant professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology at UC Santa Cruz, noticed a gap in breast cancer research. Though many studies had looked at aging and breast cancer risk, most of those studies were done on mice that had never been pregnant."
"That really shocked me when I started. This is a huge variable, but it's really important ... a large part of our population has undergone pregnancies."
UC Santa Cruz researchers discovered why early pregnancy reduces breast cancer risk later in life. The study, published in Nature Communications, found that pregnancy between ages 20-30 permanently changes how breast cells age, preventing accumulation of cells that may contribute to tumor growth. Assistant Professor Shaheen Sikandar identified a research gap: most aging and breast cancer studies used mice that had never been pregnant. Graduate student Andrew Olander led the research, comparing mammary cells in pregnant versus non-pregnant mice at equivalent human ages of 56-69 years. The findings address a significant oversight in cancer research by including pregnancy as a critical variable affecting breast health outcomes.
Read at The Mercury News
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