Maternal and paternal age at birth and the risk of breast cancer in Greek women: a case-control study.

Purpose: To investigate the possible association between maternal and paternal age and breast cancer in Greek women.

Methods: This study enrolled 238 women with breast cancer and 153 healthy women as control group. All participants were examined clinically and with breast ultrasound and those older than 40 years, also with digital mammography.

Results: A statistically significant positive correlation was observed between the age of the father (x2=52.985, p<0.001) and the mother (x2=34.838, p=0.001). More specifically, in breast cancer patients, the majority of their mothers (45.4%) was over 30 years of age and their fathers' age (48.3%) was over 37 years of age.

Conclusions: Our study found that as the age of the father and mother increases, the incidence of breast cancer increases in parallel. Further studies with larger number of patients are necessary in order to clarify the real role of parental age as a risk factor of breast cancer.