Some Postmenopausal Women From Breast Cancer Can Protect Hormonal Therapy

Some Postmenopausal Women From Breast Cancer Can Protect Hormonal Therapy.
In a conclusion that seems to token the prevailing wisdom that any form of hormone replacement cure raises the risk of breast cancer, a new look at some old data suggests that estrogen-only hormone group therapy might protect a small subset of postmenopausal women against the disease. "Exogenous estrogen such as hormone treatment is actually protective" in women who have a low risk for developing heart tumors, said study author Dr Joseph Ragaz, a medical oncologist and clinical professor in the School of Population & Public Health at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. With his colleagues, Ragaz took another glance at text from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study, a nationalistic trial that has focused on ways to prevent breast and colorectal cancer, as well as guts disease and fracture risk, in postmenopausal women.

The team planned to present its findings Thursday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Texas. Research presented at medical meetings is not analyzed by appearance experts, unequal studies that appear in peer-reviewed medical journals, and all such findings should be considered preliminary. Launched in 1991, the WHI includes more than 161000 US women between the ages of 50 and 79.

Two groups were part of the trial run - women who had had hysterectomies and took estrogen unassisted as hormone replacement therapy and a group that took estrogen plus progestin hormone replacement therapy. The confederation therapy trial was halted in 2002 after it became clear those women were at increased peril for heart disease and breast cancer.

In the new look at the estrogen-only group "we looked at women who did not have high-risk features". They found that women with no ex history of benign heart of hearts disease had a 43 percent reduction breast cancer risk on estrogen; women with no kinsfolk history with a first-degree relative with breast cancer had a 32 percent risk reduction and women without foregoing hormone use had a 32 percent reduced risk.

Overall, the 10000-plus participants had a 20 percent reduction in bust cancer risk, a reduction that approached statistical significance. After their review, Ragaz said they concluded that using estrogen alone, peculiarly if begun in women less than 60 who don't have a uterus, can assist reduce breast cancer risk.

The new review did not receive psychedelic company funding. "Women without a uterus should be totally safe and benefit a great deal with estrogen-only use ". Yet, more scrutiny is needed to find the best treatment regimen, decide who are the ideal candidates and to figure out certainly why the estrogen only reduces risk in some women.

The findings don't actually include anything new, said Dr Rowan Chlebowski, a WHI investigator who is superior of medical oncology/hematology at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The same results were published back in 2006, when the WHI investigators reported on the estrogen-only arm of the study. "These results have been around for a sustained age of time". But, he added that "you have to be circumspect about interpreting subgroups".

To say estrogen is shielding is a little strong. The overall reduction in breast cancer risk found among the 10000 participants - 20 percent - didn't go as far as significance from a statistical item of view. When looked at by subgroups - those with no previous benign breast disease, those with no late HRT use, those with no first-degree relative with breast cancer - the reductions were significant hidden. "The point is pretty much unchanged by this new review ," he said, adding "I guestimate it will get people to look at the data again".