'Concerning and confusing': study shows HT linked to breast Ca recurrence; Experts divided over study's implications.(News)

A recent study of hormone therapy in menopausal women with a history of breast cancer was abruptly halted because of an increased rate of cancer recurrences in hormone users, but the findings are not likely to settle the debate over whether HT is acceptable for women with a history of the disease, experts said in the wake of the study's publication.

"There's going to be a lot of discussion about this paper," Dr. JoAnn V. Pinkerton, director of the Women's Place Midlife Health Center at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, said in an interview.

"The study is both concerning and confusing," said Dr. Frederick Naftolin, a past president of the North American Menopause Society.

The study, known as HABITS (Hormone Replacement Therapy After Breast Cancer--Is It Safe?), was a randomized trial of women with a history of breast cancer that was begun in 1997. It followed 174 women taking HT and 171 women in a control group. Women in the HT group were on the therapy for 2 years; participants had at least 5 years of follow-up.

The study was halted in December 2003 when the investigators found that 26 women in the HT group had experienced a recurrence, compared with only 7 in the control group (Lancet 363[9407]:453-55, 2004).

All but five of the women in the HT group who had recurrences were taking HT at the time of recurrence, and two of the women who had recurrence in the control group had been exposed to hormone therapy, said Dr. Lars Holmberg of University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden, and associates.

There were recurrences among women who were both hormone-receptor positive and hormone-receptor negative, and four of the women were on tamoxifen.