More bad news for hormone replacement therapy

Ever since studies several years ago linked hormone replacement therapy to an increased risk of breast cancer, many women stopped taking the treatment, and coincidentally, breast cancer rates have consistently dropped each year. Now another study links HRT to an increased risk of ovarian cancer among women who have taken the therapy, compared with those who have never taken it. And this study has similar risk reduction when women stopped taking the treatments. The HRT group had an overall 38 percent increased risk of ovarian cancer, according to a Danish report that appears in the July 15 issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association). The research team at Copenhagen University notes that the risk of ovarian cancer declined with longer time since last HRT use, but the risk of ovarian cancer did not differ significantly regardless of particular formulations, regimens, types of progestin or routes of administration. So once again, it appears that HRT is linked to a type of cancer and that once women stop using it, the risk declines. The researchers caution that because ovarian cancer is often fatal, doctors and patients should weigh the benefits vs. the risks accordingly.