Hair-straightening chemical products linked to increased uterine cancer risk in new study
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Researchers are reporting the results of a study that may suggest that popular hair-straightening products may be linked to a higher incidence of uterine cancer.
The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers took a comprehensive look at more than 30,000 cases of uterine cancer cases in the United States from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. They found that uterine cancer cases that occurred within six months of haircare product use were almost twice as likely to also report using a hair-straightening product.
Uterine cancer cases that occurred in the six-month timeframe that followed the use of hair products were also at increased risk for being diagnosed with the disease when they were between the ages of 65 and 79.
The study did not provide any evidence supporting an explanation for the link between uterine cancer and hair straighteners. It also did not link the risk of uterine cancer to use of any other hair products.
“Given that hair products are the most commonly used chemicals in women’s lives, we wanted to know if they could act as carcinogens in the body,” said study co-author Amy L. Eickhoff, Ph.D., an assistant professor in Pitt’s School of Medicine. “It’s important to understand if women use chemicals that could be harmful to them, so we wanted to know what they use when they wash and comb their hair.”
The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
The researchers considered cases of uterine cancer to be those that fell under the clinical definition of uterine cancer: women who had not been diagnosed with uterine cancer before they developed it and were treated by a medical and surgical team.
The study identified 30,055 women who had a uterine cancer diagnosis between the years of 1999 and 2012. Researchers looked for a diagnosis of uterine cancer within six months of the case’s initial scalp visit or at the time of first treatment for the cancer.
The researchers found 1,636 cases – or 4.4 percent – of uterine cancer in women who reported using one or more hair-straightening products between the