Oestrogen only HRT reduces breast cancer risk

Women who have had a hysterectomy and who use oestrogen-only hormone replacement therapy appear less likely to develop breast cancer in the long term than women who have never used HRT, new findings published by the Lancet today, Wednesday 7 March 2012, indicate.

Researchers followed postmenopausal women for nearly 12 years and found a 23% reduction in the incidence of invasive breast cancer in those who had used conjugated equine oestrogen therapy for an average 5.9 years, compared with women on placebo.

Those on oestrogen therapy who did develop breast cancer were also much less likely to die from the cancer than women who developed breast cancer in the placebo group.

For details of the study, see comments by AMS president Dr Jane Elliott and the Lancet media release:

Oestrogen Breast Cancer Lancet press release 56.70 Kb