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HRT may protect against colon cancer
Source: (cancerfacts.com)
Monday, February 08, 2010
DUARTE, CA – Feb. 8, 2010 – Good news for a change for women who take hormones to cope with hot flashes, sleep disruption, anxiety and other symptoms of menopause. A new population study has revealed that woman taking hormones for menopause had a 36 percent lower risk of colon cancer than women who had never taken such drugs.
Led by Dr. Katherine DeLellis Henderson, Division of Cancer Etiology at the City of Hope National Medical Center, the researchers analyzed the medical records of 56,864 women under age 80 who were going through or had completed menopause. The women were all participants in the California Teachers Study begun 1995. None had a prior diagnosis of colorectal cancer. Most were past menopause at the start of the study, and 61 percent were currently using hormone replacement therapy.
They found that 442 participants had been diagnosed with invasive colon cancer. When they compared those taking hormones to those taking a placebo, they found that women who had taken hormone therapy had a 36% lower risk for colon cancer relative those who had never used the medication.
Among women with a close relative who had colon cancer, the risk reduction was even greater with a 55 percent lower rate relative to those who did not take hormones. The study appears in the Feb. 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Results did not differ by the type of hormone therapy the women took, but the estimated risk was lower the longer the women had taken the drugs. The protection, however, did not persist for those who had taken hormones in the past, but had stopped taking the drugs.
"Long-term recreational physical activity, obesity, regular use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications, and daily alcohol intake did not modify these effects," the researchers wrote. "Baseline-recent use was more strongly associated with colon cancer risk among women with a family history of colorectal cancer."
Millions of women in the U.S. stopped taking hormone therapy after the Women's Health Initiative study found in 2002 that such therapy increased the risks of heart attack, stroke, breast cancer and blood clots compared to women given an inactive placebo.
Following those findings, women are now advised to take hormone replacements at the lowest dose and for the shortest time possible, if at all.
Despite this protective effect found in this latest study, no one is recommending that women take hormone therapy to reduce their risk of colon and rectal cancer.
SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology 2010 171(4):415-425, published online January 11, 2010.
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