HRT cancer connection ‘confirmed’

An article from the BBC news site, Health section has reported that there is a connection between HRT and breast cancer. However, this article is referring to synthetic hormones and does not discuss a connection between bioidentical hormones and breast cancer.

The article from the BBC News site follows:

“New evidence of a link between hormone replacement therapy and a raised risk of breast cancer has been put forward by US researchers.

The New England Journal of Medicine research found breast cancer risk fell sharply when women stopped taking HRT. A UK expert said a 50% drop in HRT use in recent years had probably stopped up to 1,000 breast cancer cases a year.

But another group of experts said the fall in breast cancer rates may be due to other factors. The interpretation of the original 2002 “Women’s Health Initiative” study, linking combined oestrogen and progestin HRT with breast cancer, has been hotly debated. This combined version remains the most commonly-prescribed HRT in the UK.

The Californian researchers said that their new findings would end debate over the link. After the move away from combination HRT in the US after 2002, the number of breast cancer cases fell, a sign to many that the connection between HRT and breast cancer was genuine.

Others argued, however, that a reduction in the frequency of mammograms among women who ditched their HRT might have contributed to the apparent drop. The latest research not only kept monitoring 15,000 women from the original study, who had all been urged to stop taking HRT in 2002, but looked at data for women not originally involved, who had been given no specific advice on giving up.

In the first group, the incidence of breast cancer was much higher in the hormone group in the five years leading up to 2002, then dropped very rapidly, with the number of diagnoses falling 28% in 12 months. The women had roughly the same number of mammograms before and after 2002.

Many women in the second group also chose to stop taking the tablets, and this 50% decline in hormone use coincided with a 43% fall in breast cancer rates between 2002 and 2003.
Women in the second group who carried on taking HRT were at higher risk of cancer – with a woman who continued for five years doubling her breast cancer risk every year, the researchers said.
‘Convincing data’ Dr Marcia Stefanik, from Stanford University, said: “This is very strong evidence that oestrogen plus progestin causes breast cancer.

“You start women on hormones and within five years their risk of breast cancer is clearly elevated. You stop the hormones and within one year their risk is essentially back to normal.
“It’s reasonably convincing cause-and-effect data.”
Professor Valerie Beral, director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University said that many studies since 2002 had agreed with the initial finding.

She stressed the “good news” – that breast cancer risk caused by HRT fell soon after women stopped it, rather than persisted for many years. She said: “In the UK, where there has been a 50% fall in the number of women taking HRT, this means 1,000 fewer women with breast cancer every year.” Cancer Research UK advises that HRT can be taken by women with severe menopausal symptoms for short periods

However, not everyone is persuaded by the latest research findings, with some specialists insisting that HRT remains an important treatment for women whose lives are badly affected by menopausal symptoms.

Dr David Sturdee, president of the International Menopause Society, which represents HRT specialists, said that women should speak to their doctors to see if HRT would be appropriate.
He said: “There’s no doubt there has been a drop in breast cancer rates, which is very good news, but this started before the reduction in HRT use.

“Breast cancer takes years to develop, so if this drop was due to stopping HRT, we wouldn’t be seeing it just yet. “There’s something happening, which is worth investigating, but it’s unlikely to be HRT.”

A spokesman for Breakthrough Breast Cancer said previous research had suggested that the extra risk of breast cancer linked to HRT disappeared after five years.

He said the suggestion of a swift return to normality in the research needed to be reproduced in other studies. “

Source: BBC News

Vitamins ‘do not cut cancer risk’

Vitamin Supplements

Source:  bbcnews.com

Taking vitamin C or E does not reduce the risk of prostate cancers – or other forms of the disease, two large US studies suggest. Both trials were set up following some evidence that taking supplements might have a positive effect.

But one study of 35,533 men, and a second of 15,000 doctors, found no evidence that cancer rates were any lower in those taking supplements. Both studies feature in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Supplements don’t substitute for a healthy diet and some studies have shown that they may actually increase the risk of cancer
A number of trials had suggested that taking vitamins could cut the risk of certain cancers by boosting levels of beneficial antioxidants which work to minimise damage in the tissues, but the results were mixed. The latest studies set out to come up with more definitive results, by involving large numbers of volunteers.

In the first study, researchers from University of Texas and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine gave healthy men either the trace mineral selenium, vitamin E, both or a dummy pill.

The team intended to monitor all the participants for at least seven years but the trial was stopped early because the results were so disappointing.

The researchers found there were no statistically significant differences in the numbers of men who developed prostate cancer in the four groups.

In all cases the proportion of men diagnosed with prostate cancer over a five-year period was 4% to 5%.

In the second study, researchers at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital tested the impact of regular vitamin E and C supplements on cancer rates among 14, 641 male doctors.

Over eight years, taking vitamin E had no impact at all on rates of either prostate cancer, or cancer in general. Vitamin C had no significant effect.

Dr Jodie Moffat, of the charity Cancer Research UK, said: “There are a lot of studies looking at whether vitamin and mineral supplements can reduce the risk of cancer but many of them, like this one, don’t support a link.

PROSTATE CANCER
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in men in the UK
Every year in the UK 35,000 men are diagnosed
One man dies every hour of prostate cancer in the UK
African Caribbean men are three times more likely to develop prostate cancer than white men

“This new research means it is even less likely than we previously thought that supplements can protect against prostate cancer.

“Supplements don’t substitute for a healthy diet and some studies have shown that they may actually increase the risk of cancer.”

She added that eating a diet high in fruit and vegetables was still the best way to get the required vitamins and minerals.

John Neate, of The Prostate Cancer Charity, described the findings as “disappointing”.

“Diet does seem important in the development of prostate cancer and we recommend reducing the amount of saturated fat eaten, keeping weight under control, and increasing the intake of fruit and vegetables,” he said.

Dr Pamela Mason, scientific advisor to the Health Supplements Information Service, said all three nutrients were essential for human health.

But she added: “Vitamins and trace elements are not intended to be used like drugs. They are intended for health maintenance and for making up dietary gaps in the population.”

Research published earlier this year suggested Vitamin C supplements may substantially reduce the benefit from a wide range of anti-cancer drugs.