"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."
"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, said Andrew Olander, a graduate student in Sikandar's lab and the lead author of the study. 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. Previous studies on aging and breast cancer primarily used mice that had never been pregnant, creating a significant research gap. Assistant Professor Shaheen Sikandar's team addressed this by studying two mouse groups: one that underwent pregnancies at ages equivalent to 20-30 in humans, and one that never became pregnant. After allowing the mice to age naturally to equivalent ages of 56-69 in humans, researchers found that early pregnancy permanently changes how breast cells age, preventing accumulation of cells that may contribute to tumor growth.
Read at www.santacruzsentinel.com
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