UK study links HRT to ovarian cancer

According to an article published in the April 21 edition of The Lancet, for every 2,500 women who take hormone replacement therapy there is an additional case of ovarian cancer compared with a similar sized group not on HRT. Additionally, the report states that, for every 3,300 women using HRT there will be one extra death from the disease.

This conclusion is based on the results of the "million women study," conducted by charitable group Cancer Research UK. The program observed the incidence of ovarian cancer and the number of deaths from the condition that occurred in 948,576 women who participated in the original study. Risk factors such as hysterectomy status, alcohol consumption and socio-economic measures were also taken into consideration during the extended observation period, which lasted for an average of 5.6 years.

The data showed that 2,273 cases of ovarian cancer occurred, resulting in 1,591 deaths. The study also showed that current HRT users were more likely to develop and die from cancer than those who have never used HRT, and that for current users the incidence of disease was linked to duration of treatment. Another key finding was that the type of HRT used, its constituents or mode of administration, did not affect the incidence of disease. Lead researcher Valeria Beral, director of Cancer Research UK's epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford, said that the results of the study are worrying, and that, "not only does HRT increase the risk of getting ovarian cancer, it also increases a women's risk of dying of ovarian cancer."