Breast Discomfort During Hormone Therapy May Indicate Increased Risk for
Breast Cancer
Behind the Cancer
Headlines®
It is known that postmenopausal women taking estrogen plus
progestin in hormone replacement therapy experience both increased breast
density and breast discomfort. A team of researchers from UCLA sought to
determine whether the discomfort was a signal for increased density. Using data
from women enrolled in the Postmenopausal Estrogen/Progestin Interventions Mammographic Density study, they found that women with
new-onset breast discomfort showed a 3.9 percent increase in breast density,
compared with a 0.6 percent density increase in women who did not experience
discomfort.
Women with dense tissue in more than 75 percent of the breast face four times the risk of developing breast cancer than do women who have little or no dense breast tissue. Thus, new-onset breast discomfort during hormone replacement therapy may indicate an increased risk for developing breast cancer.
Their findings were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
SOURCES:
Archives of Internal
Medicine,