Hormonal contraception and colorectal cancer
Menée à l'aide de données de registres danois portant sur 1 956 948 femmes (durée médiane de suivi : 12,5 ans), cette étude analyse l'association entre l'utilisation de contraceptifs hormonaux de dernière génération et le risque de développer un cancer colorectal avant la ménopause (1 878 cas)
Recently, colorectal cancer has become the most common early onset (ie, before the age of 50) gastrointestinal cancer worldwide and remains the third most common cancer in women. The incidence of colorectal cancer among adults younger than 50 years has risen sharply over the past two decades, with contributing factors that remain poorly understood. To date, use of hormonal contraception has been associated with no effect or a reduced risk of colorectal cancer in the general population. However, much of the existing literature is limited by recurring methodological issues, like the inclusion of postmenopausal women using menopausal hormone therapy, reliance on older contraceptive formulations, lack of differentiation between contraceptive types, self-reported exposure with recall bias, small sample sizes, and inadequate adjustment for confounders. In a linked study, Lange et al report findings from a large cohort study examining whether use of contemporary hormonal contraceptives influence colorectal cancer risk in premenopausal women (doi: 10.1136/bmj-2026-100065). In this nationwide cohort of nearly two million premenopausal women …
BMJ , éditorial, 2026