Oral contraceptive use and malignant melanoma

There was no overall relationship between a prior history of oral contraceptive (OC) use and the development of melanoma among 141 cases of nonfatal malignant melanoma and 2,820 age-matched controls drawn from respondents to a large postal survey of registered U.S. nurses; crude relative risk (RR) was 0.93 and 95% confidence limits (CL) were between 0.64 and 1.36. Adjustment for a number of additional variables did not alter this estimate materially. Duration of OC use and interval since first use were similarly unrelated to the occurrence of melanoma. For women diagnosed before age 40, there was a crude positive association of "ever" use of OC and melanoma (RR = 1.78; 95% CL, 1.11-2.86). However, adjustment for geography and other variables diminished this association and rendered it statistically not significant (RR = 1.43, 95% CL, 0.83-2.46). These data do not support the hypothesis that OC use is an independent risk factor for melanoma.