HRT Increases Risk of Ovarian Cancer

Hormone replacement therapy dramatically increases the risk of ovarian, womb and breast cancers, according to a UK study.

The results of the Million Women Study published in 2003 show that about 1.000 women in the UK died of ovarian cancer caused by hormone replacement therapy between 1991 and 2005. Also it was revealed that combined HRT doubles the risk of breast cancer.

A new study that also involved about a million women shows that HRT users are 20 percent more likely to develop and to die from ovarian cancer, compared with women who never used hormone replacement therapy.

The results of the study lead to the conclusion that there is one extra case of ovarian cancer for every 2.500 HRT users and one extra death from ovarian cancer in every 3,300 women taking hormone replacement therapy.

The research team said that ovarian, womb and breast cancer comprises circa 40 percent of all cancers that are diagnosed in UK women. The total incidence of all the three types of cancer is 63 percent higher in HRT users.

The risk of ovarian cancer turned out to be the same for any type of HRT. It was found that the risk of ovarian and other types of cancer return to normal within a few years after a woman stops using HRT.

The results of the study are worrying, because it has been revealed that HRT increases both the risk of developing ovarian cancer and the risk of dying from this disease, according to lead researcher, Professor Valerie Beral, director of Cancer Research UK's epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford.

Taking into account the fact that HRT increases the risk of ovarian cancer alongside with the risk for breast and womb cancer, women should think very carefully before taking the decision whether to use HRT. Also women who decided to use HRT should take the smallest dose during the shortest possible time, the lead of the research team said.

However, a spokesman for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said that HRT remains an effective treatment for menopausal symptoms in the majority of women. Also the spokesman added that any woman using HRT should discuss her need to continue treatment with her doctor.