'Chronic women have 1.26 times higher risk of developing breast cancer'
Nov 05, 2024
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Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, and the link between mental illness and breast cancer risk is a long-discussed topic. In particular, concerns have recently been raised that some antipsychotic drugs may be related to breast cancer, and efforts by international academia have been made to identify them.
In the midst of this, a joint research team (first author Yang Ji-soo and corresponding author Cho Chul-hyun) of Yonsei University School of Medicine (Professor Jeong Seon-jae and Dr. Yang Ji-soo) and Korea University School of Medicine (Professor Cho Chul-hyun) recently published a study on Koreans that found that women with schizophrenia have a higher risk of breast cancer than women without schizophrenia, and that the duration of antipsychotics use can affect breast cancer incidence. This provides the basis for establishing clinical guidelines for management in the use of antipsychotics in Korea by using large-scale data in Korea.
The research team analyzed a total of 900,000 medical records, including about 220,000 women with schizophrenia between the ages of 18 and 80, 220,000 women with other mental illnesses, and 450,000 women who are not suffering from mental illness, through the National Health Insurance Corporation database from 2007 to 2018.
As a result of the analysis, the risk of breast cancer in the women's group with schizophrenia was 1.26 times higher than that of the group who did not suffer from mental illness and 1.07 times higher than that of other women with mental illness. In addition, it was confirmed that the risk of breast cancer increased 1.36 times when antipsychotic drugs were taken for more than 4 years and less than 6 months. There were also differences by age group, and the risk of developing breast cancer was 1.36 times higher in the 40-64 age group with schizophrenia, and the difference was not significant in those under 40 and over 64.
The research team suggested that female patients with schizophrenia, especially middle-aged women, may have an increased risk of breast cancer. Professor Jeong Seon-jae emphasized that "this study is an important basis for the early screening and prevention of breast cancer in female patients with schizophrenia", and that "regular breast cancer screening is essential, especially for female patients before and after menopause".
Professor Cho Chul-hyun said, "For patients who are forced to use antipsychotic drugs for a long time, customized drug selection and periodic monitoring considering the risk of breast cancer are needed."Based on this study, we plan to develop clinical guidelines for breast cancer prevention in schizophrenia patients and conduct follow-up studies to minimize the risk of long-term use of antipsychotic drugs.
Meanwhile, the study was conducted with the support of the Korea Research Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and was recently published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, a renowned international academic journal in the field of psychiatry.
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