HRT Ups Cancer Recurrence

Reported April 1, 2008

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A diagnosis of breast cancer doesn’t mix well with hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

According to European researchers, women who take HRT after a bout with breast cancer are significantly more likely to see their cancer return or to develop a new malignancy.

The investigators compared two groups of women, both with about 220 participants. The first group received HRT after cancer treatment, while the second did not. Over a median follow-up of four years, 39 women in the HRT group had a recurrence of their cancer or a new cancer, compared to 17 in the non-HRT group. The researchers estimate an overall five year disease recurrence rate of about 22 percent for women taking HRT, versus about nine percent for those who forego treatment with hormones. That puts the absolute increased risk due to HRT at about 14 percent.
 

In an accompanying editorial, Kathy I. Pritchard, M.D., of the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Center in Toronto, notes this is one of the first studies to take a randomized, controlled approach to gauging the effects of HRT on women who have had breast cancer and is helping to settle the debate that has raged in the medical community about whether or not these drugs are appropriate for breast cancer survivors.

“Although randomized data concerning use of HRT for symptomatic intervention in breast cancer survivors are still sparse, it seems that the harmful side effects of HRT have finally been clearly demonstrated,” Dr. Pritchard writes.

SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, published online March 25, 2008