Hormone therapy study stopped due to increased breast cancer risk and lack of overall benefit

WHY: A major study of combined estrogen and progestin in healthy menopausal women was stopped early due to an increased risk of breast cancer. The study is part of the long-term, multi-center Women’s Health Initiative (WHI). The press conference also will release findings on the therapy’s effects on heart disease, stroke, blood clots, fractures, and colorectal cancer.

WHO:
Speakers will be:
     Claude Lenfant, M.D., Director, NHLBI
     Marcia L. Stefanick, Ph.D., Chair, WHI Steering Committee, and Associate Professor of Medicine, Center for Research in Disease Prevention, Stanford University
     Garnet Anderson, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator and Biostatistician, WHI Clinical Coordinating Center, and Member, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
     Jacques Rossouw, M.D., Acting Director, WHI, NHLBI