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HRT & BREAST CANCERWomen who develop breast cancer while on Hormone Replacement Therapy have fewer locally advanced cancers, more well differentiated tumors and an improved metastasis free survival. Acting as a promotor or co-carcinogen rather than an initiator of cancer, Eastrogen may act actually to increase. Acting to increase the synthesis of the tumor supressor BRC A1 gene product, Estrogen may prolong any tumors that do develop in the pre-metastasic state. Additional clinker studies supplemented by basic biological research must continue to investigate this relationship between taking the association of HRT with decreased risk of fatal breast cancer into account when deciding whether or not to use menopausal replacement hormones.To add to the confusion, most studies have shown that death from breast cancer, as well as mortality from all causes, is reduced by about 20% in HRT users. Breast cancer mortality in ever users versus never users, which is what the other studies measured, did not reveal an increased risk of death from breast cancer in the HRT users. One intriguing possibility is that estrogen may encourage the growth of slow growing tumors and suppress the growth of more aggressive ones. The risk of dying of breast cancer is much less than many women realize, 3.6% over a lifetime of 95+ years. Only 1/4 of women who develop breast cancer die from the disease. The lifetime risk of death from colon cancer, 2.7%, is almost as high. If estrogen use should be confirmed as decreasing the risk of fatal breast cancer by 15%, then the lifetime breast cancer mortality rate will be reduced to 3% in HRT users. Menopausal Medicine Summer 1997, Nurse's Health Study, American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study 2 ACS-CPS2 1995, Oncology 1993: 391229-235 National Cancer Institute 1993 NIHPB93-2789, Obstetrics & Gynecology 1995; 85:112-17, British Medical journal 1996; 312:1646-47) --> return to menu / back ... (click) --> return to top of the page (click) |
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