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" Women who start their periods early and finish them late may be more likely to develop certain types of breast cancer, research suggests. Researchers at the University of Oxford examined data from 117 studies involving nearly 119,000 women with breast cancer and a further 300,000 without the disease. They found that the increased risk associated with early periods and late menopause was more apparent for lobular than ductal cancers. The increased risk associated with late menopause was also particularly noticeable for oestrogen-sensitive cancers. Their findings, which are published in the Lancet Oncology medical journal, also indicate that starting periods early has a greater impact on breast cancer risk than finishing them later. Researcher Dr Gillian Reeves said: &amp;#039;We already knew that hormones associated with reproduction have a big impact on breast cancer risk and that starting periods early and having a late menopause increase risk, but these findings suggest that sex hormone levels may be more relevant for specific types of breast cancer - ER positive tumours and lobular, rather than ductal, tumours.&amp;#039; Dr Julie Sharp, Cancer Research UK&amp;#039;s senior science information manager, said that the study adds to our understanding of the role that hormones play in the development of breast cancer. &amp;#039;It&amp;#039;s very interesting to see that these hormones play a bigger part in the development of certain types of breast cancer and this will be important for future work in this area,&amp;#039; she added. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-living/news/a23054/timing-of-periods-may-indicate-breast-cancer-risk/>