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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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Hormone Therapy Nearly Doubles Lung Cancer Risks

Latest findings could signal the end of treatment

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(Newser) – Hormone replacement therapy nearly doubles women's risk of death from lung cancer, new research has discovered. The hormone therapy as women hit menopause was once nearly standard treatment. But the latest news—combined with other findings that the therapy increases risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke—will likely relegate HRT to the medical trash bin, reports the Los Angeles Times. Lung cancer now kills more women than breast, ovarian, and colon cancers combined.

Researchers prematurely stopped a 16,000-women hormone replacement study when early results showed the therapy was doing more harm than good. Hormone therapy poses breast cancer risks because estrogen attaches to receptors on tumor tissue, accelerating tumor growth. Studies have shown lung tissue also has estrogen receptors, where the hormone promotes blood vessel growth and nourishes tumors.

Carcinoid tumor L. hilum
Carcinoid tumor L. hilum   (©Pulmonary Pathology)
Carcinoid tumor L. hilum
Carcinoid tumor L. hilum   (©Pulmonary Pathology)
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(The link to lung cancer) is yet another reason to not use hormone replacement therapy if it can be avoided. - Dr. Mark Faries, director of translational tumor immunology at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica

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dearlizzie
Sep 21, 09 12:51 PM CDT
These stories which tell half truths do a disservice to women and open the door to quacks like Suzanne Somers. The study alluded to, the Women's Health Initiative, has been questioned by many docs as unsound. 1) They tested older, decades-past-menopause women whose bodies had changed significantly in the years since they had stopped producing their own hormones. 2) the test employed an HRT that is no longer used and contained an estrogen not found in significant amounts in humans -- conjugated estrogen from horses. If the study were repeated using human hormones, the results might be very different. Docs prescribing birth control pills as hormone replacement for women in peri-menopause who continue to take the hormones are not seeing any health risks such as these The type of hormone replacement deserves to be studied so that women seeking the many health benefits of estrogen & progesterone aren't terrorized by inaccurate inferences taken from a faulty study using faulty hormones. Reply
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Snarfeh
Sep 21, 09 9:26 PM CDT
I really don't give a damn what else HRT will cause....that it stops hot flashes and keeps me from killing people is all that matters. I'm not making light of the things HRT might cause or affect, but becoming myself again within 2 weeks of starting it was like a small miracle for me. I'm kinda like Charlton Heston was with his guns...they'll pry my HRT from my cold, dead hands... Reply
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