Study shows no link between antiperspirants and cancer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new study, prompted by an urban myth spread on the Internet, shows there is no evidence that antiperspirants or deodorants can cause breast cancer.

The study, appearing this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, examined the personal hygiene habits of 813 women with breast cancer and 793 women without the disease and found no link between cancer and body odor control cosmetics.

"Antiperspirant and deodorant use did not differ whether or not a participant (in the study) had breast cancer," said Dana K. Mirick, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. This indicates, she said, that use of the personal products does not cause the disease.

Mirick, first author of the study, said that the data was collected starting in 1992 as part of a larger study testing if other common exposures might be factors in breast cancer.

"About that time, these rumors (about antiperspirants and cancer) started to pop up on the Internet," said Mirick. "So we threw in these additional questions."

Other results from the large study were published earlier, but nothing was done about the antiperspirant question until Mirick and her co-authors realized that women were still concerned about the issue, even 10 years after it was first raised on the Internet.

The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute were so concerned that both put out notices on the Internet stating there was no evidence linking the personal products with cancer.