UCF calls for clearer guidelines for HRT

The Ulster Cancer Foundation has called for clearer guidelines on the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) following a report that some kinds of (HRT) have a signicantly greater risk of breast cancer than others.

The Million Women Study, funded by Cancer Research UK, the NHS Breast Screening Programme and the Medical Research Council, confirmed that current and recent use of HRT increases a woman's chance of developing breast cancer and that the risk goes up with duration of use.

Current users of all types of HRT, including oestrogen-only, combined oestrogen-progestagen and tibolone, are at increased risk of breast cancer compared with women who have never used HRT. But the risk is substantially greater for users of combined preparations of HRT than for women on the other types.

Professor Valerie Beral, Director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit and the lead author of the report, said: "We estimate that over the past decade use of HRT by UK women aged 50-64 has resulted in an extra 20,000 breast cancers, oestrogen-progestagen therapy accounting for 15,000 of these.

"Combined oestrogen-progestagen HRT is usually prescribed for women who still have a uterus, to avoid the increased risk of cancer of the uterus caused by oestrogen-only therapy.

"Since our results show a substantially greater increase in breast cancer with combined HRT, women need to weigh the increased risk of breast cancer caused by the addition of progestagen against the lowered risk of uterine cancer.

"Comparing the risks is by no means simple, and women may well want to discuss options with their doctor."

Scientists at the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit in Oxford analysed data from over one million women between the ages of 50 and 64.

Researchers found that post-menopausal women using combination HRT were twice as likely to develop breast cancer those not on HRT.

The study also found that current HRT users may have an increased risk of death from breast cancer (22%) compared with women who have never had HRT. Though the reports' authors said more work was needed to confirm this figure as the results was of borderline statistical significance.

(MB/SP)