Drop In Breast Cancer Rate After Many Avoid HRT

A sharp fall in the number of breast cancer cases in the United States suggests that stopping the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can cut the risk of getting the disease.
 
Hormone replacement to treat menopause problems fell into disfavor in 2002, following a study of 160,000 women which showed that it increased the risk of getting heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer.

 
Just 12 months after routine use of it stopped, the breast cancer rate fell by 6.7%.  It had been rising for 20 years. Between 2002 and 2004, the rate fell by 8.6% in the US. The decrease was seen only in women 50 years or older, the age of menopause.
 
HRT helps women cope with mood swings, hot flushes and night sweats. Two in five Caucasian women suffer these problems during menopause.
 
A Singapore study released in 2005 found that 15% of women had hot flushes.The most common menopause problem experienced by half the women here is muscle and joint aches.
 
The National Cancer Centre has not seen a drop in the number of breast cancer cases associated with HRT use. It is believed that the treatment was not used as much here as it was in other developed countries.
 
Dr Wong Nan Soon, a consultant at the National Cancer Centre, said that numbers may not have dropped because the breast cancer screening programme started a few years back might have picked up cases which otherwise would have gone unnoticed.
 
In the US, the 2002 HRT shocker led to a 38% drop in its use by the end of the year. In 2005, there were 18 million HRT prescriptions – compared to 61 million in 2001.
 
Another significant trend is the type of breast cancer that dropped sharply is the estrogen positive one linked to use of HRT.
 
A paper in the New England Journal of Medicine last month, which released this information, said the almost immediate fall in breast cancer rate among older women suggests that the cancer tumors stopped growing, or even shrank, after women stopped taking HRT.
 
The paper said “The hypothesis that hormone withdrawal can rapidly influence the growth of breast cancer is supported by anecdotal reports of regression of breast cancer after discontinuation of HRT.”
 
But the team of doctor researchers who did the US study found that by 2004, the drop in breast cancer cases had started leveling off.
 
The question being asked now is whether the fall is due only to a slowing of cancer tumors, or is there really is a long-term reduction.
 
If the change is the result of slowing down the growth of cancer tumors, then the number of breast cancer cases will start rising again after some years.
 
There have been other studies linking HRT to breast cancer, including a doubling of risks with long-term use.  But this is the first that shows a sharp drop with the cessation of HRT use.