HRT Increases Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence

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Moderators Member Posts: 25,912
edited December 2021 in Managing Side Effects of Breast Cancer and Its Treatment

Hormone Replacement Therapy Increases Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence
November 11, 2021
Hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of breast cancer recurrence (the cancer coming back), so women with a history of the disease should not take HRT. Read more...

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  • sbelizabeth
    sbelizabeth Member Posts: 2,889
    edited December 2021

    Wait, what? More than two thousand women with a history of breast cancer were deliberately given hormone replacement therapy for research?

    And their recurrence rate skyrocketed. What a surprise.

    This seems criminal. Tantamount to pouring gasoline on a fire you've just stomped out.

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  • Salamandra
    Salamandra Member Posts: 1,444
    edited December 2021

    I can't agree with you. If the women were informed based on the best knowledge of the time, I don't see the problem here. On these boards we are always talking about how we wish we had studies of women who quit hormone therapy early by their own choice.

    Menopause symptoms can be very bad for some and I can see some women being willing to risk a relative increase in recurrence risk, especially if their base risk is low.

    If hormone therapy reduces my risk by 35%, and then HRT increases it by 80%, as far as I can see I'm not that much higher than I would've been without the hormonal therapy.

    Women and doctors need this information to make informed decisions. Also, the study was ended early.

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