Million UK women in hormone study

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- One million British women have enrolled in the largest study ever of the impact of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on women's health, doctors said on Monday.

The Million Women Study is investigating the effect of different types of HRT on the risk of developing breast cancer.

"No one has studied the health of one million women in this way before," said Professor Valerie Beral of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in Oxford.

"It will now be possible to answer important questions surrounding HRT and women's health," she added in a statement.

Women take HRT to relieve the hot flashes and night sweats that occur during menopause and as a preventive measure against heart disease and osteoporosis, or brittle bone disease. But its link to breast cancer and other health problems is unclear.

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The final results of the study, which was started three years ago and gradually expanded, will not be available until next year or later. But preliminary findings show that one in 70 women aged 50-64 in Britain has had breast cancer and survived and one in 11 had a mother or sister who had the disease.

"These figures mean that about 70,000 women aged 50-64 in the UK are living with breast cancer. This should not be seen as all bad news; although large numbers of women in the UK have had breast cancer, many are surviving for long periods of time," said Dr. Emily Banks, who is working on the research project.

Half of the women in the study had used the contraceptive pill and half had also taken HRT, the researchers said, adding that one-third of the women are currently using HRT.

"Many women in mid-life are taking hormone replacement therapy and they want information about its effects. They also want to know what they can do to stay healthy. The Million Women Study will, in the next few years, be able to answer many of the questions that women are asking," Beral added.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in industrialized countries. The lifetime risk of developing the disease in one in 10. Each year in Britain more than 30,000 women are diagnosed with the disease and about 80 percent are over 50 years old. The five-year survival rate is 74 percent.

Diet, family history of the disease, the age at the onset of puberty, the use of oral contraceptives and the number of children a women has are possible risk factors for the disease.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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