Women who take hormone replacement therapy are at a greater risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer according to scientists.
The death toll estimate emerged from the biggest investigation of links between HRT and cancer ever undertaken.
HRT increased the risk of ovarian, breast and womb cancers. Scientists said current advice would not change and women should be on hormone replacement therapy for the shortest possible time.
Previous results from the Million Women Study have linked HRT with an increased risk of breast and womb cancer.
Stopping hormone use may have stopped some cancers from growing and caused them to disappear, or it may have just slowed them down so that they won’t appear until years later, scientists told.
To put the findings in perspective, they mean that over a period of five years there is likely to be one extra case of ovarian cancer among every 2,500 women receiving hormone replacement therapy. For every 3,300 women on HRT, there is estimated to be one additional death from ovarian cancer.
The study’s author, Dr Valerie Beral, from Oxford University, concludes that HRT may have caused more than 1000 women in Britain to die from ovarian cancer since 1991.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week reasserts the link between HRT and breast cancer, attributing falling rates of the disease in the US to declining use of the controversial therapy.
Via : Xinhuanet.com