I was shocked when at 30 years old, I found a lump in the shower one day while shaving under my arm which turned out to be triple negative breast cancer (a hard-to-treat cancer that mostly affects otherwise healthy women around the ages of 30 – 40). I had never smoked, never taken any non-prescription drugs, was always a healthy weight and didn’t even drink pop or eat much sugar. I had virtually no history of cancer in my family and when I was tested for a genetic link, as expected, it came back negative.
Anti-Perspirants
I noticed right away that most breast cancers are found in the upper outer quadrant of the breast (near the armpit) which is exactly where mine was. In fact, I only noticed the lump because I was shaving there.
I also had two lymph nodes right in the middle of my armpit completely eclipsed by cancer (nothing left of the actual nodes). There was also an area of concern in my other armpit on early scans which wasn’t biopsied however the pains I felt in my left armpit as the cancer shrunk during chemo I also felt in my right which has lead me to believe I did have cancer in BOTH armpits.
It definitely made me suspicious of a link.
While charities like Cancer Research UK falsely claim there is no evidence of a link, I on the other hand feel there is strong scientific evidence of a link between anti-perspirant use and breast cancer ESPECIALLY when usage begins at an early age, is heavily used and/or is used accompanied by frequent shaving. Many of the studies which have been cited to claim there is no link were not designed to take all of these factors into account.
Here’s what the science says so far…
There is a retrospective questionnaire-based study from 2003 which looked specifically at incidence of underarm shaving frequency (the only study to date which I can find to take this factor into account) alongside anti-perspirant use as well as age at onset of shaving and found:
“the data from this study [is] consistent with the hypothesis that the degree of antiperspirant/deodorant usage and axillary shaving is associated with an earlier age of breast cancer diagnosis. The age distribution of the 437 respondents was not skewed towards younger individuals. The mean age of breast cancer diagnosis was progressively lower proceeding from the Non to Max usage groups (Figure 2). In addition, beginning these habits at an earlier age was associated with a significantly earlier age of diagnosis (Figure 3). These results suggest that combined habits were necessary. Separately done, these habits were not associated with a significant earlier age of diagnosis (Figure 4).
This study from 2011 also found “increased levels of aluminium in noninvasively collected nipple aspirate fluids taken from breast cancer patients (mean 268 ± 28 μg/l) compared with control healthy subjects (mean 131 ± 10 μg/l) providing evidence of raised aluminium levels in the breast microenvironment when cancer is present.“
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22099158/ (2011)
This video from NutritionFacts.org with links to their research is also very interesting and notes not only a correlation in the rise of breast cancer cases with antiperspirant sales but also explains that in the past “31% of breast cancers [were] being found in the upper-outer quadrant” but in the “1990s up to 61% of breast cancers” are being found in the upper-outer quadrant (near the armpit).
Despite Cancer Research UK (a charity I have no trust in by the way) claiming there is no evidence to link anti-perspirants with breast cancer even they cite the statistics that
- Since the early 1990s, breast cancer incidence rates have increased in females by around a quarter (24%), and rates in males have remained stable (2016-2018).
- Over the last decade, breast cancer rates in females have increased by a twentieth (5%), and rates in males have remained stable (2016-2018).
While I am speculating here – the increase in antiperspirant use leading up to and around this time and then plateauing in the present day where its use is already widespread provides a plausible explanation for some of the trends seen in these figures. The fact that rates in males remains stable (again speculating) could be due to a lower instance of underarm shaving which would mean less contact with the skin due to hair and also less abrasion to the skin itself. And of course there is always the possibility that it is not just one factor but a combination of factors which combine to increase a person’s risk of getting cancer.
I think of it like a cancer lottery – the more things we do (especially those daily exposures or habits over many years) to increase our risk the more likely it will be for our ticket to be plucked.
For example, not only are females more likely to shave underarms before applying antiperspirants but they’re also more likely to take hormonal contraception and to be exposed to a wider variety of toxins through makeup and skincare products.
While Cancer Research UK does admit that environmental factors can cause cancer they tend to only concentrate on the socially unacceptable ones: drinking, obesity and not breastfeeding.
They hugely downplay the known risk of oral contraceptives claiming that ‘less than 1% of breast cancers are caused by oral contraceptives’ despite a 2009 study by the Hutchinson Cancer Centre showing a “4.2-fold increase increased risk of triple-negative breast cancer for women 40 and under. Longer duration of use and early age of first use further increased risk.” The population-based study of nearly 900 cases is the largest of its kind.
Cancer Research UK Risk Factors: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/breast-cancer#heading-Four
https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2009/05/birth-control-rare-breast-cancer.html
I began underarm shaving and anti-perspirant use around 10 or 11 years old and have shaved my under-arms every day since and applied anti-perspirant afterwards. That is approximately 20 years of shaving (I often had irritated and broken skin under the arms) followed by at least once-daily (sometimes more frequent) application of aluminium-based anti-perspirants until the day of diagnosis when I stopped using anti-perspirants.
My tumour and lymph nodes responded very well to treatment – after one session I could barely feel the lump and after two treatments I had a complete radiological response on my MRI (where no cancer can be seen on the scan – even my previously cancerous lymph nodes looked normal). I feel I may have had an exceptionally fast and positive response in part because I stopped using anti-perspirants (and contraception) as soon as I was diagnosed.
This German investigation from 2019 found “When taking into account the overall aluminium exposure from foods, cosmetic products (cosmetics), pharmaceuticals and FCM from uncoated aluminium, a significant exceedance of the EFSA-derived TWI and even the PTWI of 2 mg/kg bw/week, derived by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, may occur. Specifically, high [aluminium] exposure levels were found for adolescents aged 11–14 years. Although exposure data were collected with special regard to the German population, it is also representative for European and comparable to international consumers. From a toxicological point of view, regular exceedance of the lifetime tolerable aluminium intake (TWI/PTWI) is undesirable, since this results in an increased risk for health impairments. Consequently, recommendations on how to reduce overall aluminium exposure are given.”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00204-019-02599-z (2019)
It is no secret that antiperspirant is widely used around the time of puberty (around ages 11-14) which could explain the higher than average aluminium exposure in that age category in the German study. Of course some like myself believe that they must carry on the habit into adulthood where ‘exceedance of the lifetime tolerable aluminium intake’ is likely.
And, recently in 2017, a 1:1 case-control study to investigate the risk for BC in relation to underarm-cosmetic products application found that “use of [underarm cosmetics] was significantly associated with risk of BC (p = 0.036). The risk for BC increased by an [overall risk] of 3.88 (95% CI 1.03–14.66) in women who reported using UCP’s several times daily starting at an age earlier than 30 years. Aluminum in breast tissue was found in both cases and controls and was significantly associated to self-reported [underarm cosmetics] use (p = 0.009). Median (interquartile) aluminum concentrations were significantly higher (p = 0.001) in cases than in controls (5.8, 2.3–12.9 versus 3.8, 2.5–5.8 nmol/g).
Not only was my cancer concentrated in the left armpit area (as you can see below from my post-surgery photo) and very active in the lymph nodes directly in my armpit, but because there were also concerns over possible cancer in my right armpit along with increasing evidence in the literature of a link has made me feel very strongly that anti-perspirant application was a main risk factor in my diagnosis.
So now, if like me, you feel the evidence is pointing to anti-perspirants as being a risk factor for developing breast cancer – what do we do about it?
I’ll explain what I do now in my next post! Stay tuned!
ldr13 