The sudden decline in breast cancer after 2002 can be attributed to women stopping hormone therapy following the Womens Health Initiative study, according to the findings of a new study that was published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
There has been debate over whether this quick decline was due to women stopping the widely prescribed Prempro, Wyeth’s combination estrogen and progestin hormone therapy, which was used in the WHI study, or whether the decline coincided with better detection as more women had mammograms in the 1990s.
In this latest analysis of the medical records of women who participated in the study, researchers concluded that Prempro’s added breast-cancer risk fell quickly, within about two years, after women stopped taking hormone therapy.
You can read more details about this study in today’s Wall Street Journal Health column, which quotes two physicians; Dr. Avrum Bluming, who has been critical of the WHI study said “the drop was too fast to attribute it to hormone use” alone. The other, Dr. Rowan Chlebowski, the UCLA physician who led this most recent analysis, said, “this is the best data we have.”
The debate continues…
Update: (2/11/09)
Wyeth’s spokesperson, Gwendolyn Fisher, comments on this study:
“We don’t believe the article supports the theory that the decline in use of estrogen plus progesterone caused a one-time abrupt nationwide decline in breast cancer incidence. They don’t offer an explanation of why breast cancer rates remain stable today when HRT rates continue to decline.”
Statement from the International Menopause Society
“The decline in breast cancer rates started at least 3 years before the Women’s Health Initiative study was halted. Breast cancer takes years to develop and, to reach the stage where it is detectable, it takes at least a decade. If HRT use causes breast cancer, then the drop in breast cancer rates would not be seen for some time yet.”
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After spending eight years doing extensive research in the area of woman’s hormonal health for a book that is not yet written and an upcoming website, I will inform you that there is no one in any area of medicine, general or natural, that agree on anything. For every study that says something is you will find a study that says it is not. It is most important for every woman to become your own health care advocate. You need to following your instincts, know your own mind and body well, keep records of your symptoms and when they occur and find a physician you trust who will listen to what you want them to do for you.
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