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Breast cancer after years of relaxers.
Straight answer first: breast cancer claims are not on the federal trial track and have not been dismissed — they are worked up and monitored. That is the structure of the litigation, not a verdict on you. Here is exactly what it means.
Active litigation — no settlement. MDL 3060 underway · 11,779 cases pending · filing deadlines vary by state and run from when you knew or should have known.
Did you get relaxers — perms, the white cream — every few weeks, for years?
That one question decides most of it. It seems like nobody ever told you the risk was anything worse than a scalp burn.
See where I standfree · confidential · 2 minutes · an honest answer either way
What the lawsuit is actually about →
No receipts needed · you don’t have to remember every brand · no fee unless there is a recovery. Court costs and litigation expenses are advanced by counsel and repaid from the recovery. You are not responsible for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise. The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before expenses are deducted.
Or talk to a person now: (888) 348-2735 — answered 24/7
Marin & Murphy Law Firm
Every inquiry gets a personal review and a straight answer — including “not yet” or “no” — free and without obligation.
Claims are brought against the companies that made and sold chemical relaxers — not against your stylist, your salon, or the person who did your hair growing up. Conversations are confidential. Some matters may be referred to or handled with other law firms. No settlement has been announced and no trial has been held; every case depends on its own facts. This page does not diagnose anything. Attorney Advertising.
Breast cancer is not one of the three core injuries the court’s trial track is built around, and the research on breast cancer is mixed. It has also not been dismissed: breast cancer is named in the order that created the federal hair relaxer litigation, and breast cancer claims are still being worked up. What that combination means for a claim is the whole of this page.
One question decides most of it.
Did you get relaxers — perms, the white cream — at least four times a year for two years or more? Roughly is fine.
free · confidential · no receipts needed · you don’t have to remember every brand · an honest answer either way · no fee unless there is a recovery.
The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before case expenses are deducted. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and reimbursed to the firm out of the recovery only if there is a recovery. You have no liability for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise.
This page is about a lawsuit — it is legal information, not medical advice, and it does not diagnose anything. Questions about your health belong with your own doctor.
Free, Confidential Consultation — no fee unless there is a recovery
Talk to Marin & Murphy Law Firm at (888) 348-2735 — answered 24/7 — or use the confidential case review form on this page. Some matters may be referred to or handled with other law firms.
The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before case expenses are deducted. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and reimbursed to the firm out of the recovery only if there is a recovery. You have no liability for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise.
Lawsuits consolidated in federal court in Chicago (MDL 3060) allege that long-term use of chemical hair relaxers is associated with uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, and related conditions. As of August 2026 the cases are in pretrial proceedings; no trial has been held and no settlement has been announced. The allegations have not been proven, and each case depends on its own facts.
The straight answer on breast cancer claims
Fibroids, endometriosis and breast cancer claims are outside the federal MDL’s current trial track but have not been dismissed as a category. These claims are actively worked up — records obtained, eligibility evaluated, and status monitored — and are positioned for the paths that remain open, including individual filing and any broader resolution.
Two documents explain that posture, and the one that constrains a claim comes first.
The court’s November 2024 opinion (Dkt. 946) identifies uterine, ovarian and endometrial cancer as the diagnoses with a preserved six-month refiling window, and the June 2026 bellwether damages order speaks of “the … MDL injury (i.e., ovarian or uterine cancer).” The ten bellwether trial cases selected in April 2026 come from that group. No breast cancer case is among them.
The other is the transfer order. When the Judicial Panel centralized these cases in February 2023, the injuries it identified expressly included breast cancer — “uterine, ovarian, or breast cancer, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, or other injuries to the reproductive system” (quoted at Dkt. 291 at 2). Breast cancer has been within the scope of the MDL 3060 since the beginning.
The honest summary is that breast cancer sits inside the transfer scope and appears in no operative order as a core injury, and no order expressly adjudicating breast cancer claims as a category has been located on the docket.
The research is genuinely mixed — and that matters
It seems like you have already found one page saying the link is established and another saying there is nothing to it. Both were describing real studies; they were each describing only one. This is the one injury lane where the studies disagree with each other, and a page that hides that is not helping you evaluate anything.
The Sister Study side. A 2020 analysis of about 46,709 women in the NIH Sister Study reported that women who used chemical straighteners every five to eight weeks or more often were roughly thirty percent more likely to develop breast cancer than women who did not use them. A separate 2021 analysis of adolescent use reported an association with premenopausal breast cancer, and essentially none after menopause.
The Black Women’s Health Study side. A study of 50,543 Black women followed from 1997 to 2017, with about 17.8 years of mean follow-up and 2,311 incident breast cancers, found no clear overall association between heavy hair product use and breast cancer. Its authors described the results as “largely null,” with a weak signal only for heavy use of lye-containing relaxers and estrogen-receptor-positive disease.
Those two bodies of evidence do not cancel each other out, but neither do they add up to the uterine cancer picture, where a large cohort study, a second large study in Black women, and the court’s own trial track all point the same way. If you are deciding whether to have your claim reviewed, this is the accurate frame: the case for breast cancer is weaker than the case for uterine or ovarian cancer, and it is not zero. Every study, cohort size and effect estimate is laid out in the study evidence ledger.
Study findings and adverse-event reports describe associations; they are not verified causation.
What actually happens with a breast cancer claim
Records are obtained — pathology, including receptor status, oncology notes, surgical and treatment records. Exposure history is documented: how often, for how long, over what years, and which products if you remember them. Eligibility is evaluated against your state’s filing deadline, which is often the first thing that ends a claim and is checked early for that reason. The docket is monitored, including the general-causation expert ruling that has been fully briefed since June 16, 2026 and remains undecided. And the claim is positioned for the paths that remain open.
What does not happen is a promise. No breast cancer case is on this MDL’s trial calendar, and there is no settlement to be included in today.
Do you qualify?
- Used a chemical hair relaxer at least four times a year for at least two years. At-home and salon use both count; a perm at the kitchen sink every few months counts the same as a standing salon appointment, and use that ended decades ago counts. Nobody is asked whether it was done correctly.
- A documented breast cancer diagnosis, with pathology available.
- Treatment records — surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, hormone therapy.
- A rough timeline of relaxer use, and any brand memory. Not remembering brands does not disqualify anyone.
- Your state’s filing deadline has not run. That deadline generally runs from when you knew or should have known of the connection between the product and the diagnosis, not from your last relaxer.
You will also be asked about any uterine, endometrial or ovarian cancer diagnosis, because that answer changes which lane the claim sits in. The eligibility walkthrough explains the order those questions come in and why. The first step is about two minutes, costs nothing, and asks nothing you have to look up first — records are requested for you, with your authorization.
What this page is not
This page is legal information, not medical advice, and it does not diagnose anything. Questions about your health belong with your own doctor. Nothing on this page is guidance about what to use or not use on your hair.
No hair relaxer settlement has been announced and no one has been paid. Any page that quotes a dollar figure is estimating. The settlement page explains how product-liability value is assessed and why the ranges circulating online disagree with one another.
Consultations are free and confidential, and there is no fee unless there is a recovery. Some matters may be referred to or handled with other law firms.
A claim here is against the companies that made and sold the product — not against a salon, not against whoever applied it, and not against you for having used it. Would it be a mistake to have the file looked at by someone who has already told you the evidence is mixed? You get an answer either way.
Free, Confidential Consultation — no fee unless there is a recovery
Talk to Marin & Murphy Law Firm at (888) 348-2735 — answered 24/7 — or use the confidential case review form on this page. Some matters may be referred to or handled with other law firms.
The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before case expenses are deducted. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and reimbursed to the firm out of the recovery only if there is a recovery. You have no liability for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is breast cancer part of the hair relaxer lawsuit?
It is inside the scope of the order that created the litigation. It is not one of the three cancers the trial track is built on, and it appears in no operative order as a core injury.
Why do some firms take breast cancer cases and others do not?
Because the evidence is mixed and the trial track is cancer-specific in a way that excludes it. Firms draw the line differently. The useful question to ask any firm is not whether they will take the case but what they will actually do with it and when.
My relaxer use started as a teenager. Does that matter for breast cancer specifically?
One published analysis looked at adolescent use of dyes, straighteners and perms and reported an association with premenopausal breast cancer. It is a single study and the underlying figures are being verified before we quote them.
Is this a class action?
No. These are consolidated individual lawsuits (an MDL) — 11,779 pending as of the panel’s August 3, 2026 count, out of 16,199 filed to date. Each claim stays its own case.
Does receptor status matter?
It may. The one non-null signal in the Black Women’s Health Study analysis involved estrogen-receptor-positive disease and heavy lye-relaxer use. Pathology, including receptor status, is part of every records review.
Has anyone been paid?
No. No settlement has been announced in this litigation and no trial has been held.
What does “no fee unless there is a recovery” mean?
The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before case expenses are deducted. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and reimbursed to the firm out of the recovery only if there is a recovery. You have no liability for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise.
Sources
- In re Hair Relaxer Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 3060, N.D. Ill., Master Docket 1:23-cv-00818.
- JPML Transfer Order, quoted at Dkt. 291 at 2 — transfer scope expressly including breast cancer.
- Dkt. 946, Memorandum Opinion and Order (Nov. 13, 2024) — core cancer claims; refiling window.
- Dkt. 1944 (June 22, 2026) — bellwether damages; MDL injury defined as ovarian or uterine cancer.
- Dkt. 1781 (Apr. 2, 2026) — ten bellwether trial cases selected by the court.
- Dkt. 1828 (May 5, 2026); Dkt. 1881 — general-causation Rule 702 motion, briefed June 16, 2026, undecided.
- Eberle CE, Sandler DP, Taylor KW, White AJ, “Hair dye and chemical straightener use and breast cancer risk in a large US population of black and white women,” Int J Cancer 2020;147(2):383–391.
- White AJ, et al., “Adolescent use of hair dyes, straighteners and perms in relation to breast cancer risk,” Int J Cancer 2021.
- Coogan PF, Rosenberg L, Palmer JR, et al., “Hair product use and breast cancer incidence in the Black Women’s Health Study,” Carcinogenesis 2021;42(7):924–930 — “largely null” overall.
- JPML, Pending MDL Dockets by Actions Pending, Aug. 3, 2026.
Cases are handled on a contingent-fee basis: no fee unless there is a recovery. The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before case expenses are deducted. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and reimbursed to the firm out of the recovery only if there is a recovery. You have no liability for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise.
Attorney admissions: Matthew T. Marin — RI, CT, MA, SC, U.S.D.C. D.R.I. · Stefanie A. Murphy — RI, CT, MA, U.S.D.C. D.R.I./D.Conn./D.Mass.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Attorney Advertising. This website and its contents are intended to provide general information about Marin & Murphy Law Firm and about legal developments in the chemical hair relaxer litigation. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and nothing on this page creates an attorney-client relationship. No attorney-client relationship is formed by sending information through this site, by telephone, or by any form on it; an attorney-client relationship is created only by a written agreement signed by you and the firm.
Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other matter. Every case is different and is decided on its own facts. Statements on this page about the status of litigation describe allegations that have not been proven and court filings that speak for themselves.
Marin & Murphy Law Firm is licensed to practice in the states identified on this site. Some matters may be referred to or handled with other law firms. Cases are handled on a contingent-fee basis: no fee unless there is a recovery. The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the gross recovery, calculated before case expenses are deducted. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and reimbursed to the firm out of the recovery only if there is a recovery. You have no liability for court costs or litigation expenses if there is no recovery, unless a court directs otherwise.
This page is legal information, not medical advice, and it does not diagnose anything. Questions about your health belong with your own doctor. The attorney responsible for this advertisement is Matthew T. Marin, Esq.
