Women who take hormone replacement drugs to fight the symptoms of menopause may increase their risk of dying if they develop lung cancer. Women taking HRT drugs that combined both estrogen and progesterone were 71 percent more likely to die than those women with lung cancer who had taken a placebo.
The eight year study of over 16,600 postmenopausal women strikes another blow against HRT drugs that have already gotten a bad reputation over the past few years as studies linked them with an increased risk of developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer, strokes and heart problems. Experts say the study makes sense because estrogen could increase the blood flow to tumors and lessen the effectiveness of cancer prevention treatments.
Among women taking HRT, the greatest risk of dying from lung cancer was for those aged 60 to 79, although the risk of actually developing lung cancer wasn’t increased.
“These findings should be considered before the initiation or continuation of combined hormone therapy in postmenopausal women, especially those with a high risk of lung cancer, such as current smokers or long-term past smokers,” wrote researcher Town Chlebowski, MD of UCLA Medical Center and colleagues in “The Lancet.”
“These results seriously question whether hormone-replacement therapy has any role in medicine today,” said Dr. Apar Kishor Ganti of the University of Nebraska, who wrote a commentary in “The Lancet.” “It is difficult to presume that the benefits of routine use of such therapy for menopausal symptoms outweigh the increased risks of mortality.”
Cancer Fact: Lung cancer is the second most common cancer among both men and women in the United States and kills about 90,000 men and 70,000 women each year.
