Twin membership and breast cancer risk

Pregnancy estrogens are substantially elevated in twin pregnancies and are likely to be more so in the case of dizygotic twins. If levels of pregnancy estrogens were positively related to breast cancer risk in the offspring, female twin members would be expected to be at slightly higher risk. Data from an international case-control study were utilized to assess this hypothesis. The analysis was based on 870 cases with breast cancer and 2,641 hospital controls from two sites: Glamorgan, Wales (1965-1967), and Boston, Massachusetts (1965-1966). Seventeen cases were members of twin pairs, and 8 of them had a twin brother; 33 controls were members of twin pairs and 14 had a twin brother. Among all women, the odds ratios for breast cancer were as follows: for twins with brothers, 1.54 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.64-3.71); for twins with sisters, 1.30 (95% CI 0.58-2.92); and for all twins, 1.40 (95% CI 0.77-2.55). The odds ratios were higher among premenopausal women. These findings are not conclusive, but they are compatible with the hypothesis that pregnancy estrogens may affect the risk of breast cancer in the offspring.