Do Bras Cause Breast Cancer

Sounds like a stupid question, right? But according to a very convincing study published in 1995, the answer is, "Yes".

The statistics below, taken from Dressed to Kill, the Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras, by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, Avery Publishing Group, 1995, say that the lifetime chance of a woman getting breast cancer is very dependent on how long per day, on the average, she wears a bra.

Never	Less than 12 hours a day	12+ hours, but not to bed	24 hours/day
one chance in168	one chance in 152	one chance in 7	3 chances in 4
1:168	1:152	1:7	3:4

According to the book, the link between breast cancer and bras is slightly more convincing than the link between smoking and lung cancer. They speculate that the cause is restriction of lymph circulation and resulting long-term exposure of cells to toxins, but whether this is the true mechanism or not is irrelevant to the facts above.

The study design, execution and analysis seem valid, and I did a short search on the Internet, looking for evidence contrary to the above. I didn't find any evidence to refute the study, or any follow-up studies to confirm the results. I initially read about it in Dr. David Williams' health newsletter - an off-beat, entertaining and very useful publication.

The dearth of information is deafening on this matter. Why aren't there peer-reviewed studies refuting or confirming the information in the book? I believe it's because it is in nobody's interest, except the women involved of course, to confirm, and nobody thinks they will refute. I did find find some references to bra wearing and other breast problems, such as fibrocystic breast disease and bras, including one small informal scientific study (the first link below).

If you've studied the politics (and the money) of medical research, it's funded in four primary ways, pharmaceutical companies, private foundations, the federal government and universities. Obviously the pharmaceutical companies have no interest - indeed, a negative interest - in confirming the correlations above. And though I don't know, I have been told that there was a large contribution from bra makers to a prominent national cancer society - suggesting that they would not fund a study. I don't know why others haven't taken it up.

Below is some of the confirming information I've found - sparse but suggestive.

More can be found by doing a search on "Soma Grismaijer" - her name is unique enough that the results are pertinent. Anyone want a killer thesis topic in sociology or anthropology? Just broaden the questions in the list in Dressed to Kill (they give suggestions) and do a survey of women coming out of oncologist's offices. With correlations this strong, it wouldn't have to be a large study to reach significance.