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Hrt: need for better trials

01 December 1991

The benefits of hormone replacement therapy could be cancelled out by their risks, according to an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A large epidemiological study following nearly 50,000 women for 10 years found thatthose taking HRT had half the risk of major coronary disease than their control counterparts.

However, according to the editorial, this potential benefit could be cancelled out by the sixfold increase in the risk of death from endometrial cancer and the increased risk of breast cancer by one and a third times.

Furthermore, this cardiac benefit only occurred with women taking oestrogen alone.

No one knows if the benefits are nullified by adding progestogens, as is now recommended to prevent the cancers named above.

And besides which, said the editorial, many biases could be built into these studies, which so far have simply followed women taking these drugs against matched controls.

In other words, to date, there has never been one single randomized double blind trial to prove that there are any benefits at all to taking HRT or how extensive the risks are, a situation the journal insists ought to be rectified before anyone takes a side, pro or con.

Hrt women face greater risk of breast cancer - Women who choose hormone replacement therapy after menopause may be at greater risk of certain kinds of breast cancer, according to a US study. ...

Endometrial cancer risk greater with tamoxifen - New evidence from two studies show that women who take tamoxifen to prevent or treat breast cancer are at greater risk of endometrial abnormalities, i...

Hrt causes endometrial cancer - Combination HRT drugs which add progesterone fail to protect against endomettial cancers atcertain doses. ...

Study states link between HRT and breast cancer - Women currently using hormone replacement therapy increases have an increased risk of breast cancer, no matter how long they've taken the drug. ... .....

Hrt : cancer risk - A large scale study of all former trials of breast cancer risks with hormone replacement therapy shows a definite link between a risk of cancer and le...

Breast Cancer: Rates drop dramatically as women stop taking HRT - The rate of new breast cancer cases in the USA has suddenly dropped dramatically, and scientists reckon it’s because fewer women are taking hormone re...

Breast Cancer: HRT may be a bigger cause than everyone thought - Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may have been a bigger cause of breast cancer than anyone suspected. Since sales started tailing off in 2002 with t...

Hrt: new evidence shows link with endometrial cancer - The safety of unopposed low potency oestrogens, prescribed to treat urogenital symptoms in post menopausal women, is once again being questioned in n...

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