A massive trial to test the effects of hormones in postmenopausal women was abruptly halted today after an interim analysis showed that hormones increased the risk breast cancer, coronary heart disease, and stroke. Experts say the findings mean that millions of women currently in drugs should stop doing it. "This is probably the most important medical event in my career," says Wulf Utian, executive director of the North American Menopause Society.
Some 6 million American women currently take a combination of estrogen and progestin, which previous studies had suggested could not only prevent the symptoms of the menopause such as hot flushes, but also to prevent osteoporosis and possibly heart disease when administered over longer periods of time. the researchers suspected that they increased the risk of breast cancer, but it was unclear whether this shift benefits of drugs. much of the evidence has been gleaned from observational studies, in which researchers followed a group of women who decided to take the drugs and a comparable control group, however, the 16,608 women enrolled in the new study. - a part of the women's health Initiative (WHI), a large program set up by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute - were assigned to receive drug or placebo by chance. a much more powerful method
researchers found that hormone therapy reduces the risk of hip fractures - one of the most serious consequences of osteoporosis - 34% and reduced total fracture bone 25%. In addition, the risk of colorectal cancer decreased by 37%. But these benefits were offset by the increase in breast cancer risk, strokes and heart attacks, 26%, 41% and 29%, respectively. Given these results, an independent security group decided that the trial should be stopped after an average period of 5.2 years instead of the planned 8 years of follow up. A paper describing the results should be published on July 17 Journal of the American Medical Association ( JAMA ), was published on the website of the magazine today.
study clearly shows that women should not take hormones for long periods of time, said epidemiologist Deborah Grady of the University of California, San Francisco, who led an earlier study showed the combination did not help women already diagnosed with heart disease. But it can be hard to stop doctors from prescribing pills and women asking for them, she said. "There is an almost mystical belief that it has to work," said Grady.
Related Sites
Document JAMA
An editorial on the study, also in JAMA
Initiative women's health
learn more about why the trial was stopped
the North American Menopause Society
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