Recent observations and research studies suggest that women who suffer from migraine have reduced risk of developing breast cancer. This suggests of a possible correlation of hormones level between the diseases. Migraines and breast cancer, both are associated with estrogen levels.

Frequency of migraine attacks in women varies with time. It has been observed that low estrogen levels lead to increased migraine attacks. There are many breast cancers that are estrogen dependent and the risk of developing breast cancer is directly linked with exposure to estrogen. Migraine is associated negatively with estrogen levels.

From doctors of Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle, it has been found that overall women with history of migraine had 30 per cent lower risk of breast cancer. This findings need to be further explained and supported with more research and observations.

However, this is clear that migraine attacks in women are on higher side during menstrual cycle than in other period of time and also during pregnancy. This is because during pregnancy the level of estrogen in body is high while during menstrual cycle estrogen is low. Again, it has been seen that women who suffer from migraines have chronically low baseline of estrogen. This is what can act as a protective measure against breast cancer. Patients with migraine history appear to reduce risk of estrogen-receptor or/and progesterone-receptor positive. Estrogen seems to stimulate growth of breast cancer. However, this fact needs additional studies to prove true.

The biological mechanism between migraine and breast cancer is yet to be known fully. It has only been found through studies and experiments that there is fluctuating levels of estrogen that leads to a correlation between migraine and breast cancer and tumors that have estrogen-receptors or progesterone-receptors sites on the surface of the cells show greater response to hormone-blocking drugs than other tumors. So, those tumors are more sensitive to the hormones progesterone and estrogen.

The study conducted involved data from case-control postmenopausal women, with one group diagnosed with breast cancer and other without breast cancer for comparison study. Data on migration history was based on information of self-report and limited to diagnosis of migraine made by health professionals. The limitation of this experiment or study is the fact that women were not asked about the specific drugs that they used to treat migraine. It might be so that pills used to treat migraines may be responsible for lower risk of breast cancer and not migraines itself. A glitch that still persists and need further studies to confirm.

However, relationship between migraine and breast cancer is complicated and there can be possibility of underlying genetic link between migraine and breast carcinoma.