Breast Cancer Decline Due to Less HRT?
Posted on: Thursday, 19 April 2007, 18:00 CDT
Breast cancer rates decreased between 2002-2003 and stayed down in 2004 say U.S. researchers, but fewer women using HRT may be only partly why.
Researchers at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, studied breast cancer rates in 2003 and 2004, after the 2002 announcement of the results of the Women's Health Initiative sent hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prescriptions plummeting by 38 percent.
An overall 6.7 percent decrease in new cases of breast cancer was noted in 2003, mostly in women age 50 to 69 with estrogen receptor-positive tumors that are fueled by supplemental estrogen. Incidence rates remained low in 2004, meaning that the decline was not a one-year wonder, the researchers said.
However, the team issued a number of caveats to their findings. First, they say that the study is based on total population statistics and individual women can only reduce their risk of developing breast cancer by about 1.7 percent by stopping HRT.
Second, although a similar drop was seen in HRT prescriptions in Britain, there was no corresponding drop in the incidence of breast cancer in that country.
Third, there was also a transient decrease in breast-cancer incidence in 1987 to 1989 that was not associated with hormone use, indicating that other factors may play a role in the 2002 to 2004 statistics.
Fourth, there is no data on whether stopping HRT will lead to a permanent or temporary decline in breast-cancer incidence, or if the effect is seen for all types of HRT.
The report is published in the April 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Source: United Press International
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