HRT Raises Risk of Lobular Breast Cancer

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Wednesday, January 16, 2008; 1:00 PM

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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Not only does hormone replacement therapy raise the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women, it really raises the risk of a specific type of malignancy: lobular breast cancer.

The authors of a new study, which is published in the January issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, also found that the cancer risk appeared earlier than the five-year period cited by other research.

The study is one of the largest to focus on lobular cancer, which accounts for about 15 percent of all cancers. Ductal cancer is the most common form of breast cancer, accounting for 70 percent of all cases, according to the study.

"We found that women who were using combined estrogen and progestin hormone therapy had a nearly 300 percent increased risk in their risk of lobular, but only a 40 percent increase in their risk of ductal cancer," said study author Dr. Christopher I. Li, an associate member in the epidemiology program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. "There is clear, strong, consistent evidence that using combined estrogen and progestin hormone therapy increases a woman's risk of breast cancer. It is less well known how these hormones influence risk of different types of breast cancer."

"This is basically another confirmation of previous information," added Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La. "People who take combined estrogen and progestin are running a significant risk of cancer and heart disease. They really need to know that."

Others, however, downplayed the results.

"I'm a bit underwhelmed with this article," said Dr. Steven Goldstein, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University School of Medicine and author of The Estrogen Alternative and Could It Be Perimenopause?. "Nothing in this paper is new as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't change the current recommendations which are that we should use hormone therapy in 1) the lowest effective dose; 2) for the shortest period of time possible; and 3) consistent with patient treatment goals with reevaluation periodically."