HRT ‘cuts risk of cancer after hysterectomy’

‘Considerable influence’

HAVING hormone replacement therapy after a hysterectomy significantly reduces the risk of breast cancer, a study has found.

Scientists revealed that taking oestrogen-only HRT, which is prescribed to women who have had their wombs surgically removed, slashes the chances of getting the disease by 22 per cent.

However, the research was consistent with previous studies in showing that HRT slightly increases the risk of breast cancer when it is taken in the form of combined oestrogen and progesterone hormones.

More than 27,000 menopausal women in the US, aged 50 to 79, enrolled in clinical trials in the 1990s which examined the link between breast cancer and HRT.

Half of them were given HRT, which is prescribed to relieve symptoms of the menopause, while the rest received a placebo.

After 20 years of treatment, scientists checked to see how many had developed breast cancer.

The study included data from 10,700 women who were given oestrogen-only HRT and 16,600 women who received combined oestrogen and progesterone.

Taking oestrogen-only HRT was associated with a 40 per cent lower risk of dying from breast cancer and a 22 per cent lower risk of developing the disease.

The study’s authors suggested oestrogen-only HRT prescriptions should be looked at as a routine way of preventing breast cancer, saying: ‘Despite the statistically significant reduction in breast cancer incidence… use for breast cancer prevention has not been endorsed based on stroke risk and hormone-targeted drugs with greater influence on breast cancer incidence.’

The researchers emphasised that the reduction was ‘modest’ and for every 10,000 women, there would be two fewer deaths due to breast cancer and two fewer deaths following breast cancer.

But they added: ‘With 56million postmenopausal women in the US as a potential target, the possible influence at the population level could be considerable.’

About one million women in Britain are on HRT, which can be taken in the form of gels, patches or pills and replaces the oestrogen which the ovaries stop producing during the menopause.

However, the study, which was published yesterday in the journal JAMA, found that combined HRT increased a woman’s risk of getting breast cancer by about one third. However, it was not found to increase the risk of dying from breast cancer.

This echoes an Oxford University study published last August which also concluded that HRT raised the risk of breast cancer by a third – about twice the figure that was previously thought.

It suggested that HRT caused about one in 20 cases of breast cancer, equating to nearly 3,000 a year in the UK. But the overall risk of getting breast cancer was small – 8.3 per cent for those who took HRT for five years.

And many experts still say the benefits of HRT in relieving debilitating symptoms, including night sweats, depression and hot flushes, outweigh the risks.