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Adding to evidence that hormone
replacement therapy (HRT) can potentially raise a woman's risk of breast
cancer, a new US study links recent, long-term HRT with a heightened risk
of the disease.
Researchers found that HRT
with estrogen alone or estrogen-plus-progestin was associated with a 70%
increase in breast cancer risk when the therapy was taken for
5 years within the 6 years preceding the cancer diagnosis.
The findings build on previous
research showing a link between long-term HRT and breast cancer and help
clear up the question of whether combination HRT and estrogen-only HRT
carry similar risks.
In addition, the study of about
1,300 women found that HRT use had a particular link to lobular breast
cancer, the form of the disease that begins in the breast's lobules. It
is far less common than ductal breast cancer, which begins in the milk
ducts.
Women who were recent,
long-time users of HRT faced a three-fold risk of lobular cancer compared
with women who never used HRT.
These women also had about
a 50% increase in the risk of ductal cancer.
JAMA February 13, 2002;287:734-741
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