'Don't panic' over HRT research

Breast cancer could be more deadly after HRT

Women should carefully consider research which suggests certain types of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can double the risk of developing breast cancer, the Ulster Cancer Foundation has said.

The largest ever study into the link between HRT and breast cancer was conducted by scientists at Cancer Research UK's Epidemiology Unit in Oxford.

The research suggests the single pill moderately increases the risk of breast cancer, but the combined pill doubles the risk.

It estimates HRT, taken by women to relieve the unpleasant symptoms of menopause, may have been responsible for an extra 20,000 cases of the disease in Britain in the last decade.

Arlene Spiers of the Ulster Cancer Foundation said clearer guidelines about the use of HRT were now needed.

"We would be asking women not to panic, to think about it carefully and to talk it over with their doctors," she said.

What is HRT? In late middle age, a woman has reduced levels of some sex hormones. This causes unpleasant symptoms such as hot flushes, mood swings, loss of libido. HRT aims to boost hormone levels to reduce these symptoms.

SDLP health spokesman Dr Joe Hendron called for the chief medical officer to clarify the situation.

The Committee on the Safety of Medicines has reviewed the data and written to all health professionals.

They stressed short-term HRT use is still beneficial, but those taking it for more than a year should heed the risks and discuss them with their GP.

About 1.5m women in the UK take HRT, with half taking the combined version.

The researchers estimate there have been 20,000 cases of breast cancer over the last decade in women aged 50 to 64 because of HRT.

Steroid risk

They say combined HRT is responsible for 15,000 of those cases.

The study is also the first to report that HRT increases the risk of dying from breast cancer by 22%.

About 20 women in every 1,000 will usually develop breast cancer.

We would be asking women not to panic, to think about it carefully and to talk it over with their doctors Arlene Spiers Ulster Cancer Foundation

But the study found for every 1,000 women who use HRT for 10 years from the age of 50, there will be an additional 19 cases of cancer in those using the combined oestrogen and progestogen version and an extra five in those using oestrogen-only HRT.

Using tibolone, a steroid treatment, also increased a woman's cancer risk.

Women also have to bear in mind that oestrogen-only HRT carries an increased risk of uterine cancer.

Women's risk of developing breast cancer decreases when she stops and is back to normal levels after five years, claims the research.

The data, published in The Lancet, covered a million women who went for mammograms between 1996 and 2001.

Professor Valerie Beral, who led the research, said: "Since our results show a substantially greater increase in breast cancer with combined HRT, women need to weigh the increased risk of breast cancer caused by the addition of progestogen against the lowered risk of uterine cancer."