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U.S. researchers said that women who took hormone replacement pills had more advanced breast cancers and were more probable to die from them than women who took a dummy pill, raising new concerns about the commonly prescribed drugs.
The study which published in the Journal of the American Medical Associationwas the first to report more breast cancer deaths among women taking hormone replacement therapy.
And it disagrees prior studies that suggest women taking the drugs had fewer aggressive, easier-to-treat breast cancers.
"As opposed to the prevalent thought of two years ago, that cancers associated with estrogen plus progesterone would be favourable and not much of a trouble, we are truly showing they are associated with an increased risk of death from breast cancer," Dr. Rowan Chlebowski of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
The results include 11 years of pursuing from the Women's Health Initiative study, which in 2002 found women who took estrogen plus progesterone for five years had higher rates of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, strokes and other health troubles.
Sales of U.S. market leader Wyeth's combined estrogen plus progesterone pill Prempro have fallen by approximately 50% since 2001 to around $1 billion a year. Wyeth is now owned by Pfizer (PFE.N).
TWICE AS MANY CANCER DEATHS
Chlebowski's team found twice as many taking HRT died from breast cancer -- 2.6 per 10,000 per year versus 1.3 per 10,000 women per year -- compared with women who took a placebo when they analyzed data on the more than 12,000 women in the study.
About 24% of the breast cancer patients who took HRT had tumors that had spread to the lymph notes, compared with 16% of women who taking placebos.
"All the terrible cancers with unfavourable prognoses were also augmented," Chlebowski said, citing increases in truculent forms of breast cancer, and not just estrogen-fed cancers that are easier to handle.
"And then for the first time we show deaths from breast cancer are remarkably increased as well," he said.
Pfizer said in a statement the company stands behind Prempro's present labeling, which advises doctors to prescribe the drug at the lowest effective dose for the shortest likely period of time.
But even that may be hazardous, suggests Dr. Peter Bach of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who wrote a commentary in the same journal.
Bach said in a telephone interview that doctors can only be guessing that taking the pills at a lower dose and for a shorter time would be less dangerous.
Doctors "should be informed that this approach has not been proven in rigorous clinical tests," Bach wrote.
Doctors note that the average age of the women in the Women's Health Initiative study was 63, several years past menopause, and say the results may not apply to women taking other forms of HRT, or to those starting HRT directly at the time of menopause.
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The study which published in the Journal of the American Medical Associationwas the first to report more breast cancer deaths among women taking hormone replacement therapy.
And it disagrees prior studies that suggest women taking the drugs had fewer aggressive, easier-to-treat breast cancers.
"As opposed to the prevalent thought of two years ago, that cancers associated with estrogen plus progesterone would be favourable and not much of a trouble, we are truly showing they are associated with an increased risk of death from breast cancer," Dr. Rowan Chlebowski of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
The results include 11 years of pursuing from the Women's Health Initiative study, which in 2002 found women who took estrogen plus progesterone for five years had higher rates of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, strokes and other health troubles.
Sales of U.S. market leader Wyeth's combined estrogen plus progesterone pill Prempro have fallen by approximately 50% since 2001 to around $1 billion a year. Wyeth is now owned by Pfizer (PFE.N).
TWICE AS MANY CANCER DEATHS
Chlebowski's team found twice as many taking HRT died from breast cancer -- 2.6 per 10,000 per year versus 1.3 per 10,000 women per year -- compared with women who took a placebo when they analyzed data on the more than 12,000 women in the study.
About 24% of the breast cancer patients who took HRT had tumors that had spread to the lymph notes, compared with 16% of women who taking placebos.
"All the terrible cancers with unfavourable prognoses were also augmented," Chlebowski said, citing increases in truculent forms of breast cancer, and not just estrogen-fed cancers that are easier to handle.
"And then for the first time we show deaths from breast cancer are remarkably increased as well," he said.
Pfizer said in a statement the company stands behind Prempro's present labeling, which advises doctors to prescribe the drug at the lowest effective dose for the shortest likely period of time.
But even that may be hazardous, suggests Dr. Peter Bach of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who wrote a commentary in the same journal.
Bach said in a telephone interview that doctors can only be guessing that taking the pills at a lower dose and for a shorter time would be less dangerous.
Doctors "should be informed that this approach has not been proven in rigorous clinical tests," Bach wrote.
Doctors note that the average age of the women in the Women's Health Initiative study was 63, several years past menopause, and say the results may not apply to women taking other forms of HRT, or to those starting HRT directly at the time of menopause.
If you like this article, please feed our RSS and share it now :)
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