Hormone Therapy Increases Incidence and Deaths from Ovarian Cancer

Posted by Kindra Farizel, L.Ac.
3 October 2008

Researchers in the United Kingdom have found the combined risk of breast, ovarian or endometrial cancer appear to be 63 percent higher in users of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), typically menopausal women in the age range of 50 to 64.

The report, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, found that women who take HRT are not only more likely to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer, but also to die of the disease.

Called the Million Women Study, the research project is the biggest of its kind in the world. It found that over a five year time frame there was one extra case of ovarian cancer in every 2,500 women who take HRT. And for every 3,300 women who take HRT, there will be one additional death from ovarian cancer.

This may not sound like much until you do all the math. The researchers, who are largely funded by Cancer Research UK, estimate that use of HRT has resulted in an extra 1,300 cases and 1,000 deaths from ovarian cancer since 1991

The study also suggests that a woman’s risk of ovarian cancer returns to a normal level within a few years of stopping HRT.

Ovarian cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women in the UK with almost 7,000 new cases each year. The five year survival rate for the disease is less than 30 percent, which reflects the fact that ovarian cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage.

The ongoing UK study also has suggested that HRT contributes to breast cancer. It was not alone in these findings. A US study has just found that breast cancer is closely related to HRT (see separate Health Report in Volume 11 Issue 23).