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Study Finds HRT Provides Breast Cancer Protection

British Journal Of Cancer 2005; 93:392-398

Comparing survival between breast cancer patients exposed to HRT in the year preceding diagnosis and those who have never used hormones. A study of more than 7000 women has found that estrogen alone does not influence post menopausal breast cancer risk, and that combination HRT actually reduces both breast cancer risk and all-cause mortality.. In light of the contradictory data on the association between breast cancer mortality and HRT use, Wansu Chen and colleagues investigated the relationship in 7436 women attending their institution with a first invasive breast cancer between 1993 and 1998. The participants included women who had either never been exposed to the hormones (n=4956), those who received estrogen only at, or in the year prior to, diagnosis (n=1081), and women using estrogen plus progestin during this time (n=1399). Women using combination HRT had significantly lower breast cancer-specific and all - cause mortality, compared with never - users, with risk reductions of between 30 and 50 percent for stage 1 and 2 tumors. In contrast, use of estrogen only had little effect on either outcome. In summary "our findings suggest, relative to non-users, a lower risk of death from all causes and from breast cancer in patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer while exposed to estrogen plus progestin, but not in patients exposed to estrogen only".