Are you a premneopausal woman who is left-handed? If the answer is "yes" then let me tell you not to miss your next mammogram appointment. As per research findings from University Medical Center in Utrecht in the Netherlands left-handed women are more than twice as likely as right-handers to suffer from breast cancer before reaching menopause. Their findings are published in the recent issue of British Medical Journal.
The researchers speculate that there is a shared origin early in life for both left-handedness and developing breast cancer, possibly exposure to hormones in the womb.
The research leader Cuno Uiterwaal and his colleagues studied 12,000 healthy, middle-aged women who were part of a breast-screening program. They found that the risk of breast cancer is increased by 40 percent if both pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women are taken into consideration. On the other hand if only the pre-menopausal women are considered the increased risk was actually doubled.
About 8 percent to 9 percent of women are left-handed. But the scientists said the findings should not alarm them.
"Although the underlying mechanisms remain elusive, our results support the hypothesis that left handedness is related to increased risk of breast cancer," the researchers added. |
