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Deodorants and cancer

There is no convincing evidence that antiperspirants and deodorants cause breast cancer.

An e-mail hoax

Concerns about deodorants and cancer were started by an e-mail hoax. The e-mail claimed that antiperspirants stop your body from sweating out poisons. It suggested that these toxins build up in the lymph glands under the arm and cause breast cancer. But the details of this are wrong. Breast cancers start in the breast and only later spread to lymph glands. Your body also has several ways of getting rid of toxins, and while sweating is one of them, it is a different system to the lymph glands.

A large study in 2002 looked for links between antiperspirant use and breast cancer in 1,500 women. The researchers found that neither antiperspirants nor deodorants increased breast cancer risk.

Parabens and breast tumours

Another study found traces of parabens, a chemical found in some deodorants, in some breast tumours. Parabens is similar to oestrogen, the human hormone that can promote breast cancer development at high levels. But finding parabens in tumours is a far cry from saying that it causes breast cancer. In fact, breast tumours have large blood supplies and are likely to have traces of everything in our bloodstream. And more than 90% of modern deodorants are parabens-free anyway!

Aluminium salts and breast screening

There is no strong evidence that aluminium could increase the risk of cancer in animals or humans.

A small study in 17 women with breast cancer was quite widely reported in the news in 2007. It found higher levels of aluminium in the part of the breast nearest the skin, and the authors speculated that aluminium in deodorants might cause breast cancer. But the design of this study wasn't nearly strong enough to draw that conclusion - so on balance, there is still no strong evidence for a link.

Some cancer units advise women not to use deodorants containing aluminium salts before going for breast screening. This is not because aluminium salts are dangerous, but because they can obscure the results of screening tests. This can make breast cancers harder to detect.