Six million American women had been taking estrogen replacement therapy, but when that usage fell by about half the breast cancer rate also began to decrease soon after leading researchers attribute the decrease to the drop in hormone use.
Research found small but significant increases in invasive breast cancer in women who took the hormones estrogen and progesterone. These women also had a higher death rate from breast cancer, probably from a more advance stage.
By DENISE GRADY
Published: October 19, 2010
Hormone treatment after menopause, already known to increase the risk of breast cancer, also makes it more likely that the cancer will be advanced and deadly, researchers are reporting.
The treatment studied was the most commonly prescribed hormone replacement pill, Prempro, which contains estrogens from horse urine and a synthetic relative of the hormone progesterone.
In recent years women have been urged to minimize hormone use, and the new findings lend that advice even more weight, according to the first author of an article published this week in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Many doctors assume that women can safely take hormones for four or five years for menopause symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats, said Dr. Rowan T. Chlebowski, the first author and an oncologist who treats breast cancer patients at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif.
Hormone Therapy Worsens Breast Cancer, Study Finds
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