According to a Reuters article on Feb. 4, a new study adds to evidence that menopausal women on hormone replacement therapy may have lower odds of developing colon cancer.
The study followed nearly 57,000 teachers in California and found that women who were using HRT at the outset were 36 percent less likely to develop colon cancer during the next 10 years than those who had never used HRT.
The findings of the study, detailed in the American Journal of Epidemiology on Jan 11, 2010, support the hypothesis that estrogen offers some defense against colon cancer.
“… no one is recommending that women take HRT to ward off colon cancer. Millions of women stopped using the hormones after a large U.S. government study in 2002 found that postmenopausal women given HRT had higher risks of heart attack, stroke, breast cancer and blood clots than women given an inactive placebo.
“As a result, experts now advise that while HRT is effective at relieving menopausal symptoms — like hot flashes and vaginal dryness — women should take it at the lowest dose and for the shortest time possible.
“These latest findings do not alter that advice. But they point to a need for further study into the different effects of HRT on specific organs, write the researchers, led by Dr. Katherine DeLellis Henderson of the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California.”
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