The Link Between Talcum Powder And Ovarian Cancer

In the ongoing talcum powder row, many doctors are trying to walk a middle line between powerful pharmaceutical companies and innocent victims by downplaying the link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer while advising women not to use the product.

As an example, Dr. Robert Ashley recently wrote that the primary study linking talc to ovarian cancer may have been tainted, but he stopped short of challenging the results. Rather than saying there was no connection, Dr. Ashley opined that the survey method may have been incomplete and the women who testified about the link may have suffered from what he called “recall bias.” Part of the problem is that ovarian cancer is so rare that reliable studies and statistics are difficult to obtain, he added.