Frequent underarm shaving combined with deodorant use might increase women’s chances of getting breast cancer, claims a study based on a survey of over 400 women with breast cancer in the US.

It is the first evidence of such a link to appear in a peer-reviewed journal, but it is far from conclusive.



Claims that deodorants cause breast cancer hit the headlines recently when Phillipa Darbre of the University of Reading in the UK published a paper reporting that preservatives used in antiperspirants and deodorants can be found in breast tumours. But this in no way proved that the preservatives, called para-hydroxybenzoic acids or parabens, actually caused the tumours, and most deodorants no longer contain any parabens.



The US study, by Chicago doctor Kris McGrath of Northwestern University, does suggest that deodorants or antiperspirants might be linked with breast cancer, but only together with underarm shaving. And it has too many weaknesses to be regarded as definitive.



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