Study
Links Hormones,
Breast
Cancer
By: Lindsey Tanner
Herald Tribune, February 12, 2002
CHICAGO (AP) — A new study adds to the
growing body of evidence that recent, long-term use of hormone supplements
after menopause may increase the risk of breast cancer.
Women who had taken estrogen alone or
estrogen plus progestin for at least five of the preceding six years were
about 70 percent more likely than nonusers to develop breast cancer, the
study found.
The increased risk was about 50 percent
for developing ductal cancer — which occurs in the milk ducts — and
about threefold for developing lobular tumors, which form in the
milk-producing glands and account for about 10 percent of all breast
cancer cases.
The study further complicates the complex
question of whether to take hormones after menopause.
Estrogen supplements are taken by millions
of women to ease hot flashes, brittle bones, and other symptoms of
menopause.
For years, doctors also thought the
hormones ward off heart attacks, but more recent studies have challenged
that belief. Another recent study questioned whether they are effective in
improving a woman's mood and energy level.
The latest study is in line with recent
research linking long-term hormone use with breast cancer. However, it
lacked information on participants' habits that could influence breast
cancer risk — including alcohol use, physical activity and
breast-feeding.
The study was published in Wednesday's
Journal of the American Medical Association and was led by researchers
from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
It included 705 women ages 50 to 74 who
were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1990 and 1995. They were
compared with a control group of 692 women.
The findings suggest that nonusers of
hormones have an annual incidence of ductal cancer of about 230 per
100,000 women, compared with 349 ductal cases per 100,000 women with
recent hormone use of five years or more.
Lobular cancer would develop among
nonusers in 23 per 100,000 women a year and in 70 per 100,000 women who
have had five or more years of recent hormone use.
Only 91 of the 705 study participants with
breast cancer developed the lobular kind, and just 17 of the lobular group
were long-term recent users of hormone supplements.
Eugenia Calle, the American Cancer
Society's director of analytic epidemiology, said the latest findings are
consistent with other research suggesting little increased risk of breast
cancer for hormone use of under five years or long-term use in the distant
past.
Most women who take hormones do so for
less than five years, said Dr. Eric Bieber, chairman of obstetrics and
gynecology at Geisinger Health Systems in Danville, Pa.
Bieber questioned the study results based
on the scant data.
``I
don't think it's a settled issue,'' he said.
On the Net:
JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org
American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org
FAIR USE NOTICE: This
page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Action on Aging
distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such
copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to
use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go
beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|
