Menopause news

Breast cancer and HRT

13 September 2007

An interesting study from France on the incidence of breast cancer in users and non-users of HRT has recently been reported [ref]

A total of 6755 patients were included from which data was available for 4949 patients; 2693 women who were either using HRT or had used it in the preceding 5 years (the exposed group), and 2256 women who had never received HRT or had stopped it more than 5 years previously (the unexposed group). In the exposed group, the mean duration of HRT use was 8.3 years with 31% having used HRT for 10 years or more. There was no significant difference in the incidence of new cases of breast cancer between the two groups, although women in the exposed group were younger, less overweight, and had fewer family histories of breast cancer than women in the unexposed group.

The association between long term use of HRT and a small increased risk of breast cancer continues to cause concern. Although this study concludes that no evidence was found for an increased risk of breast cancer in women exposed to HRT compared with non-exposed women, it is unclear how much risk is affected by differences between the groups in terms of weight, age and family history.

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