Breast Cancer Risk Subsides After HRT
Dec. 2, 2002 -- There's more breast cancer-related evidence against the estrogen-progestin form of hormone replacement therapy. However, the latest study gives women some comfort -- that risk begins to dissipate six months after women stop taking it.
"The study confirms the findings of the Women's Health Initiative," that estrogen-progestin therapy increases a woman's risk of breast cancer, says lead author Linda K. Weiss, PhD, an epidemiologist and chief of the National Cancer Institute's cancer center branch.
"But our study also adds something -- that when one discontinues use, the risk dissipates," Weiss tells WebMD. "That's reassuring. I know that some women are worrying that once you've taken it for five years and more that you always have the risk."
Weiss' study appears in the December issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Cancer Institute, and the CDC.
The NIH-funded Women's Health Initiative (WHI) was the first large clinical trial to look at the risks and benefits of estrogen-progestin therapy, a popular combination for women who suffer from hot flashes, night sweats, sleeplessness, and vaginal dryness. When taken alone, however, estrogen increases a woman's risk of cancer of the uterine lining -- endometrial cancer. When progestin is combined with estrogen, that risk virtually disappears.
When the WHI study began showing that women who took estrogen plus synthetic progesterone developed more risks than benefits, the researchers stopped the trial. Amid their disappointment was confusion; women didn't know what was safe anymore.
In their study, Weiss and colleagues evaluated risks from various forms of hormone replacement therapy. They also questioned women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer about their hormone use and other potential risk factors for breast cancer. Those women were then compared with women who had not developed breast cancer.
They enrolled 3,823 postmenopausal women -- 1,870 had a history of breast cancer while 1,953 had not had breast cancer -- and found that women who had taken estrogen-progestin therapy continuously for five years or more were 1.54 times more likely to develop breast cancer than women their age who were not taking this form of hormone replacement. They did not find an increased risk of breast cancer in women who took estrogen alone.
"The study confirms the findings of the Women's Health Initiative," that estrogen-progestin therapy increases a woman's risk of breast cancer, says lead author Linda K. Weiss, PhD, an epidemiologist and chief of the National Cancer Institute's cancer center branch.
"But our study also adds something -- that when one discontinues use, the risk dissipates," Weiss tells WebMD. "That's reassuring. I know that some women are worrying that once you've taken it for five years and more that you always have the risk."
Weiss' study appears in the December issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Cancer Institute, and the CDC.
The NIH-funded Women's Health Initiative (WHI) was the first large clinical trial to look at the risks and benefits of estrogen-progestin therapy, a popular combination for women who suffer from hot flashes, night sweats, sleeplessness, and vaginal dryness. When taken alone, however, estrogen increases a woman's risk of cancer of the uterine lining -- endometrial cancer. When progestin is combined with estrogen, that risk virtually disappears.
When the WHI study began showing that women who took estrogen plus synthetic progesterone developed more risks than benefits, the researchers stopped the trial. Amid their disappointment was confusion; women didn't know what was safe anymore.
In their study, Weiss and colleagues evaluated risks from various forms of hormone replacement therapy. They also questioned women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer about their hormone use and other potential risk factors for breast cancer. Those women were then compared with women who had not developed breast cancer.
They enrolled 3,823 postmenopausal women -- 1,870 had a history of breast cancer while 1,953 had not had breast cancer -- and found that women who had taken estrogen-progestin therapy continuously for five years or more were 1.54 times more likely to develop breast cancer than women their age who were not taking this form of hormone replacement. They did not find an increased risk of breast cancer in women who took estrogen alone.