According to a large-scale study that was published in The Lancet, hormone therapy that is largely used to relieve menopausal symptoms can also increase the risk of breast cancer.
In the past there were other searches that had established a similar link. But this new study is the first to show that the risk remains elevated even ten years after treatment has stopped.It also quantifies for the first time the level of risk associated with different types of menopause hormone therapy, or MHT.
The chances that woman between the age of 50 and 69 who has never undergone MHT to contract breaks cancer is about 6.3 in 100.
If we were to compare, a woman in that age bracket who takes oestrogen and, intermittently, progestagen for five years stands a 7.7 in 100 chance of getting the disease.
More prolonged use carries even higher risk, said co-author Gillian Reeves from the University of Oxford.
“Use of MHT for 10 years results in about twice the excess breast cancer risk compared to five years of use,” she said in a statement.
“But there appears to be little risk from use of menopausal hormone therapy for less than one year.”
The topical use of vaginal oestrogens, applied as a cream, is also relatively risk-free, she added.
In North America and Europe, MHT increased rapidly during the 1990s, halved abruptly in the early 2000s, and then stabilised about ten years ago.
“Our new findings indicate that some increased risk persists even after stopping use of MHT,” said co-author Valerie Beral, a professor at the University of Oxford.
Beral and colleagues examined data from 58 previous studies around the world from 1992 to 2018 that recorded MHT use. Within the data set, 108,647 women subsequently developed breast cancer, at an average age of 65.
Researchers were then able to look for statistical links between cancer rates, on the one hand, and type along with the duration of treatment, on the other.
