Estrogen May Have Protective Effect.(colorectal cancer)

2001 MAY 10 - (NewsRx Network) -- New research supports the theory that the female hormone estrogen might protect women from colorectal cancer.

Researchers is Italy have found that women had about a 20% lower chance of developing the disease if they used oral contraceptives.

"For a while now we have suspected that estrogen in the pill could protect against bowel cancer and our research has gone some way to confirm this," said Dr. Carlo La Vecchia, who led the study. "In the future, it may be possible to develop new treatments that take advantage of the anticancer qualities of the pill."

The findings, published in a recent issue of the British Journal of Cancer, are similar to those of a recent study which suggested that hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, could protect women from colorectal cancer to the same degree.

Over the last 20 years, death rates from bowel cancer have dropped more in women than in men. Some scientists believe this could be partly due to estrogen found in oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy.

That theory deserves more attention, according to Dr. Michael Thun, head of epidemiology at the American Cancer Society. "How relevant these findings are to today's pill use is unclear because they relate mostly to older formulations," said Thun, who was not involved in the research. "But this does support the hypothesis that estrogen plays a role in suppressing colorectal ...