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| |  DG DISPATCH - BREAST CANCER: Estrogen Replacement Therapy Studied In Breast-Cancer Survivors By Robert Carlson Special to DG News SAN ANTONIO. TX -- December 14, 1999 -- Women who have survived breast cancer are usually warned not to take hormone replacements to treat symptoms of menopause. Some breast cancers thrive on hormones and the theory is that, by replacing estrogen and other hormones the woman has lost due to menopause or chemotherapy, she might invite a breast-cancer recurrence.
That theory is now being challenged as basic research discovers the relationship between breast cancer and hormones to be more complex than first thought. Although blocking estrogen in a patient's body is a standard method of fighting breast cancer, scientists are finding that they cannot automatically assume that replacing estrogen after treatment will promote cancer. Cancer researchers in two separate centers have taken steps to resolve this question by following the experiences of breast-cancer survivors who decided to take hormone replacement therapy. A presentation at this meeting from Physicians Reliance Network and Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, reported on 252 post-menopausal women who began taking estrogen (with progesterone added, unless they had a hysterectomy) after breast-cancer surgery. Average hormone use was about four years. Twenty-four of the women (about 10 percent) had discontinued the hormones at the time of the report. Two women (about 1 percent of the group) had developed cancer recurrence in the same breast, three developed new breast cancers and three developed other cancers. The researchers said they plan to continue following these women to establish whether long-term hormone replacement is safe. The second report was from Saint Louis Hospital, Paris, France, where 186 women had been taking hormone replacement since their breast-cancer surgery. Improvement in hot flashes, vaginal discomfort and mood was reported by 94 percent of the women. With an average of about two years of hormone therapy for the women, nine have discontinued due to hormone-therapy side effects. Eight others had cancer relapse, including three with recurrence in the same breast, three with cancer in the opposite breast, and two with cancer elsewhere in the body. The researchers said these relapse rates did not differ from the experiences of women with similar breast-cancer histories who did not take hormone therapy. They concluded that hormone-replacement therapy appears to be safe and that it does not appear to increase the relapse-rate of cancer. They do recommend, however, that women remain disease-free for at least three years after surgery before starting hormone treatment.
Related Link: hormone-replacement therapy.
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