A study of a possible association between breast cancer and gallbladder disease

Because gallstones and breast cancer were reported to have several of the same risk factors, a study was conducted in Washington County, Maryland to determine if women with breast cancer have an increased risk of prior gallbladder disease. Living white female breast cancer cases (n = 133), who were diagnosed from 1973 to 1983, were identified from the county's cancer registry and interviewed along with an equal number of sex-, race-, and age-matched controls about a history of gallbladder disease and other risk factors. Medical records were used to verify a history of gallbladder disease in interviewed cases and controls and to search for a diagnosis of gallbladder disease in 52 white female breast cancer cases who were diagnosed and died between 1974 and 1983, and 52 matched controls. No difference was found in gallbladder disease frequency among living or deceased cases and their matched controls. The results confirm the known association of several risk factors with breast cancer and with gallbladder disease, but most of the risk factors hypothesized to be the same for the two diseases were not the same. However, an unexpectedly strong association was found between gallbladder disease and history of myocardial infarction; this result deserves further study.