Folic acid is linked to breast cancer

Taking high doses of folic acid during pregnancy may increase the risk of breast cancer, a study suggested today.

The research, lasting 40 years and involving almost 3,000 pregnant women, found those taking a 5mg supplement of folate were twice more likely to die of breast cancer than those taking a dummy pill.

But the researchers, from the University of Bristol and the Universityof Aberdeen, said it may be a chance finding - other studies have suggested that folic acid can reduce the risk.

Women trying for a baby are advised to take a daily 0.4mg supplement of folic acid before conception and for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in order to guard against neural tube defects such as spina bifida.

Meanwhile rates of childhood cancer have shown a slow but steady increase in Europe over the past three decades, researchers said today.

A study based on records from 19 different countries showed an incident rate rise of about one per cent per year for children and 1.5 per cent for young teenagers between the Seventies and Nineties.