Effect of hormone replacement therapy on the pathological stage of breast cancer: population based, cross-sectional study
Some studies have suggested that women using of hormone replacement therapies, who get breast cancer, develop tumours with "favourable" pathological features compared to women who get breast cancer and who do not use such therapies. In this week's BMJ a study conducted in Scotland finds that there is no evidence to suggest that women using hormone replacement therapies develop tumours with favourable prognostic features, however, nor do they develop poorer prognosis tumours, which the authors say is reassuring.
Dr Sheila Stallard and colleagues from North Glasgow Hospitals University NHS Trust and the Cancer Surveillance Unit at the University of Glasgow studied 1113 women aged 50-64 years of age who underwent routine breast screening between May 1988 and December 1993. The screening was undertaken in the region covered by the West of Scotland Breast Screening Unit and each of the 1113 women had either a screen detected cancer or had developed cancer in between screens. Within this group the authors found that 166 (14.9 per cent) were using hormone replacement therapy at the time they developed breast cancer.
Stallard et al found no difference in the type, size or grade of tumour in women who were using hormone replacement compared with those who were not. They therefore conlcude that the evidence presented in their study supports the view that using hormone replacement therapy gives neither favourable nor poorer prognosis to those women who develop breast cancer, which they say is reassuring.
Contact:
Sheila Stallard, Specialist Registrar, Vale of Leven Hospital, Alexandria, Dunbartonshire Email: dr37d@udcs.gla.ac.uk