Kenyans may remember Prof Nicholas Othieno-Abinya from his controversial study five years ago linking the wearing of bra to breast cancer. Prof Abinya, is the head of medical oncology at Kenyatta National Hospital and director of cancer training at the University of Nairobi
Whether wearing bras increases the risk of breast cancer has been an issue of intense public and scientific interest for about three decades.
It was first kicked off in 1991 in a Harvard University study which suggested women who wear bras were at higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who did not.
But in 2014, the largest study so far on the issue by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, US, involving 1,500 women reported no link between breast cancer and the use of bra.
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“Our results did not support an association between bra wearing and increased breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women” said the study.
But closer home in 2015, the study led by Prof Abinya, of the University of Nairobi reported that long hours in a bra increased the risk of breast cancer.
Their study published in the African Journal of Cancer concluded women who wear a bra all the time even while in bed, are at a higher risk of developing breast cancer compared to those who do not.
The team had involved 694 women attending various clinics at Kenyatta National Hospital and Nairobi Hospital.
About half of the women, 339, had been newly diagnosed with breast cancer while the rest acted as a control.
A quarter of the study women was found not to wear bras or only did so on important occasions. On the other hand, about 10 per cent of the patients with cancer wore brassieres all the time, even while in bed.
“Patterns of brassiere wearing were significantly correlated with cancer occurrence,” Prof Abinya had told the Standard.
“I know this will raise some heat within cancer circles but this is a competent epidemiological study which has yielded indisputable scientific data,” Prof Abinya said.
The controversy however has refused to go away with another recent study at the University of Brasília, Brazil linking the use of bra to breast cancer.
This study reported an association between wearing a tight bra for several hours per day and an increased risk of developing breast cancer.
