Hormone replacement therapy does not appear to influence breast cancer detection.(Abstract)

2002 OCT 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT), does not diminish the ability to detect breast cancers or affect clinical outcomes for patients with breast cancer, according to an article published in the September 2002 issue of the Archives of Surgery.

Rodney Pommier, MD, of Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, and colleagues looked at the records of 292 postmenopausal patients with breast cancer to determine whether taking HRT was associated with the detection of breast cancer using palpation, mammography and clinical outcome.

According to background information in the article, previous studies have indicated that taking HRT can increase the risk of developing breast cancer. Because HRT increases the density of breast tissue, researchers believe that breast cancers may be harder to detect in patients taking HRT, and that their tumors may be in more advanced stages when detected. Following this line of reasoning, breast cancers of patients taking HRT will more likely be detected though palpation when they are big enough to feel (after possibly being missed by mammography).

Pommier and coauthors performed a retrospective study of the records of 292 postmenopausal patients diagnosed with breast cancer at Oregon Health and Science University between March 1994 and January 2002. One hundred forty-four women had received HRT at the time of diagnosis and 148 women had not received HRT. The average patient age was 66 years old ...