Estrogen OK for Some After Breast Cancer
Estrogen OK for Some After Breast Cancer
Estrogen OK for Some After Breast Cancer
Oct. 18, 2002 -- The evidence is mounting that at least some women with a history of breast cancer can safely take estrogen replacement therapy. A newly published study shows no increase in newly diagnosed or recurrent breast cancer among patients successfully treated for early-stage disease who took estrogen for up to five years.
Breast cancer survivors have long been told to avoid estrogen replacement therapy (ERT), because of fears that the treatment would prompt the growth of new tumors. The new study from Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is one of several suggesting this might not be the case. Based on the results of this and other studies, the researchers speculate that ERT may favorably affect the biology of some breast cancers.
But a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society says none of these recently published studies is large enough or has a broad enough range of patients to answer many questions about the safety of estrogen therapy in women who have had breast cancer. Although it is one of the longest follow-up trials of ERT in breastcancer patients ever reported, the M.D. Anderson study included only 56 women who took estrogen therapy, and most of them had localized disease and estrogen receptor-negative tumors. Only 15-20% of breast cancer patients have such tumors.
"We have had hints that hormone therapy is safe [for breast cancer survivors], but we also had hints for many years that [ERT] was good for your heart," says Debbie Saslow, PhD, who directs the Cancer Society's breast and cervical cancer control programs. "Once that assumption was subjected to vigorous testing we found that it was just the opposite."
Saslow is referring to a government study, published last July, linking combination hormone replacement therapy (estrogen and progestin) to an increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Since that time, most women have stopped taking hormone therapy for prevention of conditions like heart disease and osteoporosis, but it is still considered the best available treatment to relieve the symptoms of menopause.
Because of the recent findings, Saslow says doctors would be less likely than ever to prescribe hormone therapy to their patients who have had breast cancer, and the patients would be even less likely to take it.
Estrogen OK for Some After Breast Cancer
Estrogen OK for Some After Breast Cancer
Oct. 18, 2002 -- The evidence is mounting that at least some women with a history of breast cancer can safely take estrogen replacement therapy. A newly published study shows no increase in newly diagnosed or recurrent breast cancer among patients successfully treated for early-stage disease who took estrogen for up to five years.
Breast cancer survivors have long been told to avoid estrogen replacement therapy (ERT), because of fears that the treatment would prompt the growth of new tumors. The new study from Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is one of several suggesting this might not be the case. Based on the results of this and other studies, the researchers speculate that ERT may favorably affect the biology of some breast cancers.
But a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society says none of these recently published studies is large enough or has a broad enough range of patients to answer many questions about the safety of estrogen therapy in women who have had breast cancer. Although it is one of the longest follow-up trials of ERT in breastcancer patients ever reported, the M.D. Anderson study included only 56 women who took estrogen therapy, and most of them had localized disease and estrogen receptor-negative tumors. Only 15-20% of breast cancer patients have such tumors.
"We have had hints that hormone therapy is safe [for breast cancer survivors], but we also had hints for many years that [ERT] was good for your heart," says Debbie Saslow, PhD, who directs the Cancer Society's breast and cervical cancer control programs. "Once that assumption was subjected to vigorous testing we found that it was just the opposite."
Saslow is referring to a government study, published last July, linking combination hormone replacement therapy (estrogen and progestin) to an increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Since that time, most women have stopped taking hormone therapy for prevention of conditions like heart disease and osteoporosis, but it is still considered the best available treatment to relieve the symptoms of menopause.
Because of the recent findings, Saslow says doctors would be less likely than ever to prescribe hormone therapy to their patients who have had breast cancer, and the patients would be even less likely to take it.