date: 4/4/2007
Why the rates are now falling
ConsumerReportsHealth.org gives you the facts about decreasing rates of breast cancer and the link to decreased use of estrogen therapy. If you are taking estrogen for menopause symptoms, talk to your doctor about whether you should discontinue its use.
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After a decades-long rise, breast cancer rates suddenly started dropping in 2003. Now two studies may have found a likely reason: Millions of women quit taking estrogen treatment for menopause symptoms in 2002, after a large study showed that the hormone raises the risk of breast cancer.
One unpublished study, led by researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, found that the incidence of breast cancer increased steadily from 1990 to 1998, then stabilized until 2002. But the rate plunged 7 percent in 2003--the disease was diagnosed in 14,000 fewer women than in the previous year. Cases of estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer--the most common kind, fueled by estrogen--plummeted 12 percent in women 50 to 69 years old, the group most likely to use hormone replacement therapy.
The other study, from Stanford University and Kaiser Permanente in Northern California and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, evaluated women ages 50 to 74 in Kaiser's health plan. From 2001 to 2003 estrogen use fell by 68 percent while breast-cancer rates dropped 10 percent.
Both of those studies suggest that discontinuing estrogen therapy may stop the growth of emerging breast tumors. If you're considering such therapy, our medical consultants continue to recommend limiting it to short-term use and only for treatment of moderate to severe symptoms of menopause.
One unpublished study, led by researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, found that the incidence of breast cancer increased steadily from 1990 to 1998, then stabilized until 2002. But the rate plunged 7 percent in 2003--the disease was diagnosed in 14,000 fewer women than in the previous year. Cases of estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer--the most common kind, fueled by estrogen--plummeted 12 percent in women 50 to 69 years old, the group most likely to use hormone replacement therapy.
The other study, from Stanford University and Kaiser Permanente in Northern California and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, evaluated women ages 50 to 74 in Kaiser's health plan. From 2001 to 2003 estrogen use fell by 68 percent while breast-cancer rates dropped 10 percent.
Both of those studies suggest that discontinuing estrogen therapy may stop the growth of emerging breast tumors. If you're considering such therapy, our medical consultants continue to recommend limiting it to short-term use and only for treatment of moderate to severe symptoms of menopause.
This article first appeared in the April 2007 issue of Consumer Reports on Health.
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