Decades Of Research Supports Ovarian Cancer/Talcum Link
Studies and research conducted since the 1970s have routinely found a link between the regular use of talcum powder and an increased risk in contracting ovarian cancer.
Monday, August 24, 2015 - The first studies that publicly yielded a connection between talcum powder and ovarian cancer took place in 1971, when scientists began to look into the ability of talc to travel up a woman's vaginal tract and solidify in the ovaries, leading to an increased risk in cancer. The first studies did not prove a link, but began to bring attention to the possible risks talcum powders could pose to women who used the substance regularly for vaginal dusting.
As a result of the attention given to talcum powder and cancer, the FDA limited the amount of asbestos that could be in talc products in 1973. As talc is mined from sources that oftentimes contain asbestos, the carcinogenic asbestos was regularly found in talcum products including baby powders. The attention from the FDA prompted further studies on the cancerous traits of talc in consumer products.
In 1979, the medical journal The Lancelet published an article that claimed "epidemiological, experimental,. and clinical data seem to link asbestos and talc with ovarian cancer," again suggesting that the substance led to the disease by traveling up a female's vaginal tract. The study offered a step toward finding convincing evidence that talcum powder and ovarian cancer were connected, but also stated that more systematic evaluation of the connection between the two was needed.
Another study was published in the journal Cancer in 1982, which supported and widened the evidence presented in The Lancelet linking talcum powder to ovarian cancer. From that point on, more than 20 studies have been conducted that yielded similar results connecting talcum powder and its ability to increase the risk of ovarian cancer in women who used the product regularly.
One of the most recent studies conducted occurred in 2013, when comprehensive talcum powder research was conducted by Brigham and Women's Hospital and published in the medical journal Cancer Prevention Research. The study pulled from eight research papers that charted the effects of talcum powders on close to 2,000 women, claiming that the overall trends suggested that regular talcum powder use resulted in a 20 to 30 percent increase in the risk of ovarian cancer. This extensive study confirmed a number of earlier ones conducted that yielded similar results, including a 2003 article published in the medical journal Anticancer Research that put the increased risk of ovarian cancer at 30 percent.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an agency that aims to identify products and lifestyle patterns that cause cancer, identified talc as a substance that contains carcinogens and can become cancerous. The agency has not however claimed a definitive link between the substance and ovarian cancer, but also hasn't dismissed the connection either stating that baby powder is "possibly carcinogenic to humans."
Armed with the information taken from these and many more sources of talcum powder research claiming a link between the product and ovarian cancer, attorneys for plaintiffs in the more than 700 nationwide talcum powder lawsuits are fighting to prove that the defendants Johnson & Johnson knew of the risk involved in using their talcum powder products and continued to market the products without proper warning labels. Despite the volume of research conducted on the link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer, Johnson & Johnson continues to claim that evidence connecting the two remains inconclusive.
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