Past HRT use may lower odds of surviving lung ca

Last Updated: 2006-01-26 13:13:47 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Clementine Wallace

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who develop lung cancer appear to have lower survival rates if they have a history of using hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a study suggests.

While previous studies have yielded mixed results, some demonstrating that estrogens increase the risk of lung cancer, others finding the hormone to be beneficial, "none of them had addressed the impact of HRT on the outcomes of lung cancer," notes Dr. Apar Kishor Ganti, from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Ganti and colleagues took a look-back at nearly 500 women diagnosed with lung cancer between January 1994 and December 1999. The majority -- 86 percent -- had a history of smoking and 17 percent had taken HRT for at least 6 consecutive weeks anytime before being diagnosed with lung cancer.

The researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that overall survival was significantly better in women without a history of HRT, compared with those who had taken HRT in the past.

The survival rates decreased even further when a history of HRT was combined with a history of smoking.

They also found that HRT-experienced women tended to be younger when diagnosed with lung cancer. The median age was 63, compared with 68 for women with no previous experience with HRT.

"Here is another possible negative effect of estrogens," Dr. Jill M. Siegfried, of the University of Pittsburgh, writes in a commentary. "So unless post-menopausal symptoms are severe, and can't be treated by other medications, HRT should be avoided," she concludes.

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, January 1, 2006.