Hormone Replacement Therapy

Hormone Replacement Therapy Linked to Ovarian Cancer

In Lancet publication on April 19, 2007 (The Lancet 2007 DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60534-0) it was found that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was highly linked to ovarian, breast, and endometrial cancers. In the UK, the Million Women Study of postmenopausal women found that those receiving hormone replacement therapy were around 20% more likely to develop and die from ovarian cancer than women who never received therapy. The Lancet article reported that since 1991 HRT has resulted in some 1300 additional ovarian cancers and 1000 additional deaths from this malignancy.

Valerie Beral from the Cancer Research UK's Epidemiology Unit in Oxford, England is one of the lead researcher in this study. She stated that, "The effect of HRT on ovarian cancer should not be viewed in isolation, especially since use of HRT also affects the risk of breast and endometrial cancer. In total, ovarian, endometrial, and breast cancer account for 39% of all cancers registered in women in the UK."

This study in the United Kingdom, looked at 948,576 postmenopausal women who did not have previous cancer or bilateral oophorectomy. They were observed for an average of 5.3 years for incident ovarian cancer and 6.9 years for death. What is striking is that the total incidence of ovarian, breast, and endometrial cancers in the study population is 63% higher in current users of HRT than in women whom have never used HRT.

In the April 19, 2007 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, the study leader Ravdin found that, in the United States, a dramatic fall in breast cancer incidence perfectly coincides with the decline in HRT use.