Features -HRT cancer connection 'confirmed'

New evidence of a link between hormone replacement therapy and a raised risk of breast cancer has been put forward by US researchers.

The interpretation of the original 2002 "Women's Health Initiative" study, linking combined oestrogen and progestin HRT with breast cancer, has been hotly debated.

This combined version remains the most commonly-prescribed HRT in the UK.
The Californian researchers said that their new findings would end debate over the link.

The latest research not only kept monitoring 15,000 women from the original study, who had all been urged to stop taking HRT in 2002, but looked at data for women not originally involved, who had been given no specific advice on giving up.

In the first group, the incidence of breast cancer was much higher in the hormone group in the five years leading up to 2002, then dropped very rapidly, with the number of diagnoses falling 28% in 12 months.

The women had roughly the same number of mammograms before and after 2002.
Many women in the second group also chose to stop taking the tablets, and this 50% decline in hormone use coincided with a 43% fall in breast cancer rates between 2002 and 2003.

Women in the second group who carried on taking HRT were at higher risk of cancer - with a woman who continued for five years doubling her breast cancer risk every year, the researchers said.

Dr Marcia Stefanik, from Stanford University, said: "This is very strong evidence that oestrogen plus progestin causes breast cancer.

Oxford University cancer researcher Professor Valerie Beral said that many studies since 2002 had agreed with the initial finding.

She stressed the "good news" - that breast cancer risk caused by HRT fell soon after women stopped it, rather than persisted for many years.

She said: "In the UK, where there has been a 50% fall in the number of women taking HRT, this means 1,000 fewer women with breast cancer every year.

"The advice is now clear - if you suffer from severe menopausal symptoms, you can take HRT for the shortest possible period."

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Page updated: 20 February 2009