SECOND OPINION
Combined hormone therapy risks continue
March 5, 2008
Study: A followup of the participants in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) clinical trial has found that the women who were taking combined hormone therapy appear to have a higher cancer risk than women in the placebo group three years after the study was halted.
However, the increased risks of heart problems, strokes and blood clots had lessened.
The research, led by Dr. Gerardo Heiss of the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, appears in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Method: WHI researchers paid followup visits to 15,730 of the participants between July 2002 and March 2005.
Background: The WHI trial of estrogen and progestin involving 16,608 post-menopausal women was investigating what effect hormone therapy had on cardiovascular disease, cancer risks and bone fractures. The participants had been on combined hormone therapy for an average of 5.6 years. The trial was stopped in July 2002 when researchers found a higher risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease in the group receiving hormone treatment compared to the placebo group.
Claim: The estrogen plus progestin group has higher rates of cancer, including invasive breast cancer, than the placebo group.
Caveat: The increased incidence of cancer in the hormone treatment participants was very small: 1.56 per cent per year or 281 women versus 1.26 per cent per year, or 218 women.
Second Opinion by Libby Stephens regularly examines health
studies. Source: News release.
Toronto Star