Study: Breast Cancer Survival Rate Better for Women Using HRT

Breast cancer detection and survival rates appear to be better for women who use hormone replacement therapy, according to researchers at Oregon Health and Science University.

In a study of 292 women with breast cancer, researchers found that women who use hormone replacement therapy had less aggressive tumors and were more likely to be diagnosed through mammograms than other screening methods.

Also, women with breast cancer using hormone replacement therapy had significantly better survival rates than women who did not use hormone replacement therapy.

Researchers had speculated that because hormone replacement therapy increases the density of breast tissue, it might be more difficult to find breast cancer tumors on mammograms.

However, of 144 study patients using hormone replacement therapy, 84 had their tumors detected by mammography, while 60 were detected by other methods. Of 148 non-users, 63 had their tumors detected by mammography, while 85 were found by palpation.

Among the patients whose tumors were found by mammogram, users of hormone replacement therapy had a 100 percent survival rate, while nonusers had an 87 percent survival rate after six years, according to the study published in The Archives of Surgery. Researchers found significantly fewer cases of invasive breast cancer among the users of hormone replacement therapy, and higher incidences of T1 lesions, stage 1 tumors and node-negative tumors, which are less aggressive forms of breast cancer.

"From this data it appears that hormone replacement therapy use had only beneficial effects on breast cancer detection and outcomes, with no visible negative effects," said Dr. Rodney F. Pommier, associate professor of surgery and principal investigator of the study.

"Every women should talk to her physician about her own risks and benefits of taking hormones," said Pommier. "But this data needs to be taken into consideration as well. If we know that hormone replacement therapy can improve survival rates by producing a less aggressive breast cancer, then it's possible that by withholding hormone replacement therapy for the purpose of possibly preventing a few cases of breast cancer, you're going to have a higher death rate among women who were going to get the disease anyway."

"This study opens an entirely new director for future research of breast cancers. When we learn how hormone replacement therapy favorably affects the biology of tumors we can then use that information in a therapeutic fashion to improve the outcome of women with breast cancer," said SuEllen Toth-Fejel, research assistant professor of surgery and co-author of the study.

Other sources: Oregon Health and Science University, Archives of Surgery