Study: Antibiotics may increase risk of cancer

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Repeated use of antibiotics may increase the risk of new cancers, a fresh Finnish study warns.
      For example, those who have taken between two and five courses of antibiotics have a 25 per cent higher risk of developing cancer compared with those who have not received more than one treatment with antibiotics.
     
With individuals who have consumed more than six courses of antibiotics the risk is a third higher.
      For those who have been treated with antibiotics at least six times, the risk of developing for example prostate cancer is 40% higher, breast cancer 14%, lung cancer 80%, and colon cancer 15% higher than for those who have not received more than one antibiotic treatment.
      Other forms of cancer were also found to be linked with consumption of antibiotics.
      The researchers at the National Public Health Institute (KTL)made use of registry information of over three million Finns. The use of antibiotics in 1995-1997 and the emergence of new cancer cases between 1998 and 2004 were investigated. During the follow-up period 134,000 new cancer cases were observed.
     
The results do not mean that antibiotics cause cancer, even though a link was established.
      There may be other causes to explain the connection, such as the fact that the living habits of those who need more antibiotics differ meaningfully from the living habits of those who need them less.
      No-one should stop taking their antibiotics based on these findings, emphasise the authors of the KTL study.
      The results were first reported by the Finnish Medical Society's news service Duodecim.


Links:
  Duodecim
  National Public Health Institute

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