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MIB
B.V. VIP - Contributor
Joined: Oct 02, 2001
Posts: 42279
Location: Innsmouth
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 Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2002 2:00 am Post subject: Study Finds Estrogen-Ovarian Cancer Link |
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By Michael Conlon
CHICAGO (Reuters) - In another piece of the increasingly complex hormone-replacement health puzzle, researchers said on Tuesday that women given estrogen-only treatment after menopause ran a higher risk of ovarian cancer.
The report followed two other recently released studies that found estrogen in combination with the progestin -- a slightly less common replacement therapy than estrogen-only -- does not generally protect against heart disease and may increase the risk of breast cancer, stroke and blood clots.
The combination estrogen/progestin product is sold under the brand name Prempro by U.S. drug firm Wyeth, which also markets Premarin, the world\'s most popular stand-alone estrogen treatment.
Hormone replacement therapy of both types is used by an estimated 13.5 million women in the United States alone, nearly 8 million estrogen-only and up to 6 million in combination with progestin.
The therapy is prescribed to treat immediate symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness, and to protect against bone-thinning osteoporosis.
ADVICE FOR WOMEN
James Lacey of the National Cancer Institute, lead author of the estrogen study published in this week\'s Journal of the American Medical Association, said there was not enough evidence to say if there was also an ovarian cancer risk from estrogen-progestin use.
He offered this advice to women:
\"Because hormone therapy may influence so many conditions ... after menopause -- cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, breast cancer, uterine cancer, gallbladder disease, blood clots, and now potentially ovarian cancer -- we should no longer think of a woman basing her decision to use hormones on the potential risk of just one condition.
\"Women should continue to talk to their health care providers about whether hormones might be right for them.\"
Lacey\'s study involved more than 44,000 post-menopausal women whose health histories were tracked for about 20 years. It found that compared to similar women not on hormone replacement therapy, those taking estrogen only had a 60 percent greater risk of developing ovarian cancer.
\"The main finding of our study was that post-menopausal women who used estrogen replacement therapy for 10 or more years were at significantly higher risk of developing ovarian cancer than women who never used hormone replacement therapy,\" Lacey said in a statement released by the cancer institute.
SINCE 1940S
The institute said that as early as the 1940s women began using estrogens in high doses to counteract some of the short-term discomforts of menopause; but after it became clear in the 1970s that it carried a high risk of uterine cancer, doctors began prescribing progestin, along with much lower doses of estrogen.
Estrogen only therapy continues to be widely prescribed today for women who have had a hysterectomy. The women in the NCI study varied -- some had undergone hysterectomy, but all had at least one ovary.
In an editorial in the same publication commenting on the study, Kenneth Noller of Tufts University and New England Medical Center in Boston said the latest research as well as two recent studies including one from Sweden indicate that a causal connection could exist between estrogen therapy and ovarian cancer.
\"While the data from these observational studies do not establish causality, the association between estrogen use and ovarian cancer should be worrisome enough for clinicians to consider carefully whether to suggest estrogen-only HRT,\" he said.
He noted that it is still common for women who have had a hysterectomy but who retain one or both ovaries to be prescribed estrogen-only therapy.
LAWSUITS ALREADY LAUNCHED
The study did not specify what brands of estrogen were used by the women followed in the ovarian study.
But Hemant Shah, an independent New Jersey-based pharmaceutical analyst, said the study will heighten concerns about the safety of all female hormone replacement drugs, including Premarin and Prempro.
The two Wyeth drugs had combined sales last year of $2.1 billion, making them the company\'s most profitable franchise.
Shah noted that lawyers have already begun to file lawsuits against Wyeth, seeking compensation for death and other harm allegedly associated with Prempro.
Shah said future lawsuits are likely to also include Premarin, a reason he thinks investors should avoid Wyeth shares -- which fell 8 percent to $34.75 on Tuesday before the JAMA article was officially released.
In fact, Shah said Wyeth\'s hormone replacement drugs could pose a greater financial liability to Wyeth than two of its controversial diet drugs once used in the \"fen-phen\" slimming cocktail.
Wyeth, formerly known as American Home Products Corp., agreed to pay out billions of dollars to former users of the diet drugs after they were linked to heart valve damage and recalled from drugstores.
\"This is very different from fen-phen,\" Wyeth spokesman Lowell Weiner said in an interview, adding there was \"no legal or factual basis for any claims\" of harm associated with its two female hormone replacement drugs. (Additional reporting by Ransdell Pierson, Health Desk, 646 223-6034)
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=sciencenews&StoryID=1209286 |
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