Investigations into hormone replacement therapy have raised some disturbing questions as studies indicate the women on a combined version of this treatment have an increased risk of death from lung cancer, if they do suffer the condition at some point. The increase in risk is not by some marginal figure, but by a dramatic 70 percent.

Researchers studied data from over sixteen thousand women and found that women taking combined estrogen and progestin pills were at no greater risk of contracting lung cancer, but those who did get the disease were at a much higher risk as it would be a lot more aggressive, causing a higher death rate.




As stated by the US authors of this research this information and the health danger of this treatment should be made known to medical practitioners and their female patients who have a history of smoking. According to Dr. Rowan T. Chlebowski, MD, PhD, who is an author of the study and chief of oncology at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed): "Postmenopausal women, especially current smokers or long-term past smokers, should carefully consider these new lung cancer findings before initiating or continuing combined estrogen plus progestin use".




The results have been obtained through further analysis of study of a Women’s Health Initiative study involving postmenopausal women in 2002. The study was stopped in early 2002 as it found that the combined HRT treatment placed women at an increased risk of strokes, breast cancer, and also the formation of clots in the lungs, when compared to those receiving a placebo.

The latest study was published by the Lancet. Apar Kishor Ganti, the author of the editorial, who hails from one the most prestigious cancer centers in the world - University of Nebraska Medical Centre, questions the very role of hormone replacement therapy in modern medicine.




The findings in the current context of lung cancer have however been disputed by some, and as the initial research was not intended to track lung cancer differences more studies may be in the offing. Mick Pavlakis, a lung cancer expert and head of medical oncology at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital stressed this point.

CEO of the Cancer Council NSW, Andrew Penman stated that the cancer link was very possible as the International Agency Against Cancer had listed HRT as a grade-one human carcinogen.

Reference:

1.  Women’s Health Initiative
The Lancet