Black Lean Women Face Dangers From Hormone Replacement

Increased risk of breast cancer associated with hormone replacement treatment is well known and has been discussed in this column before. Now a new study has shown that Black women have an increased risk of development of breast cancer when they take replacement hormones compared to Caucasian women. The research also found that, and that the risk is greater for leaner women.

Most of the prior studies that have linked increased breast cancer risk to the use of hormone replacement treatment were done on Caucasian women, hence this information regarding Black women was not available. The chief investigator, Dr. Lynn Rosenberg of Boston University and his colleagues investigated the association between breast cancer and hormone treatment using data from the Black Women's Health Study.

In this study data from 32,559 women 40 years of age or older was used. Scientists have shown that among these women 615 have developed breast cancer.

Rosenberg and his colleagues found that use of hormone replacement for 10 or more years is associated with a 58 percent increased risk of development of breast cancer. Interestingly they found that women lean body with history of hormone replacement of 10 years or more had three times the risk of breast cancer.

Scientists suggest that heavier women may be producing more estrogen from fat tissue and may be less affected by taking estrogens than leaner women.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine.



Posted by: Sherin    Source