Breast cancer risk higher in first 2 years of hormone therapy
February 3, 2009 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
More news on the breast cancer/hormone replacement therapy (HRT) front.
According to a study published in the most recent issue of the journal Cancer (March 1), postmenopausal women who take estrogen and progesterone – compared to women who don’t take the combination HRT – are an increased risk (75%) of developing invasive ductal breast cancer and more than twice the risk for lobular breast cancer. Ductal breast cancer beings in the milk ducts and lobular breast cancer begins in the milk-producing lobules. The risks did drop two years after the HRT was stopped.
For women who take estrogen-only HRT, the risk was much lower. The risk of breast cancer appeared to be higher among "lean" women, but the overall risk wasn’t raised as it was with the combined HRT. The researchers cautioned that long-term estrogen-only HRT did have a history of a 50% increase in invasive lobular cancer in women who took the HRT for 10 years or more.
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Image: iStock
Tags: cancer blog, breast cancer, hormone replacement therapy, hormone replacement therapy breast cancer, lobular breast cancer, ductal breast cancer, HRT, HRT and breast cancer estrogen and progesteron
