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05 Mar 2008
Women's risk of breast cancer continues long after hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is stopped, new research shows.
Findings by the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) reveal that the risk of breast cancer remains 27 per cent higher three years after treatment finishes, compared to women who have never had HRT.
The risk of any other type of cancer was also 24 per cent higher, despite findings that suggested other health risks such as stroke and blood clots returned to normal.
Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study took into account 16,000 women with an average age of 63 that had taken part in a previous study, again undertaken by the WHI in 2002.
During the follow-up study researchers identified 63 more diagnoses of cancer among former HRT users than in women who had never taken the treatment.
"The continued increased risk of breast cancer clearly plays a role in the increased overall risk of cancer years after stopping long-term oestrogen plus progestin therapy," professor Marcia Stefanick co-author of the study stated.
Leslie Ford, from the US National Institutes of Health, which funded the WHI study, added that the findings supported the need for women to undergo regular breast examinations and mammograms "even after they stop hormone therapy".
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