Reducing breast cancer risk: what we've learned from the Women's Health Initiative

 

Ten years ago, the medical world was rocked by the discovery that estrogen-progestin hormone-replacement therapy increased the risk of breast cancer and other diseases in post-menopausal women. Hundreds of thousands of women came off HRT and within a few years we saw the first-ever documented decrease in breast cancer rates.

 

The discovery was made by the government-funded Women's Health Initiative, a study designed to explore the benefits and risks of combined estrogen-progestin HRT in post-menopausal women. The study was halted in 2002 when researchers saw a 26 percent increase in the relative risk of breast cancer in women taking the combined estrogen-progestin HRT compared with those taking a placebo. There were also significant increases in the risk of heart disease, stroke and blood clots.

 

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