Postmenopausal women face a slightly increased risk of cancer more than two years after stopping hormone replacement therapy, according to findings from a follow-up study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The data also demonstrated that cardiovascular risks returned to normal levels in patients who stopped receiving HRT over the same time period.

In the follow-up study, researchers studied 15 730 of the original participants in the Women’s Health Initiative trial, which was halted in 2002 over concerns about increased cardiovascular and breast cancer risks in patients receiving HRT. The new data showed that after a mean of 2.4 years, cancer occurred at a rate of 1.56 percent per year among postmenopausal women who had received HRT, compared with a rate of 1.26 percent per year among those who had received placebo. Overall, the risk of developing any type of cancer was 24-percent higher in the women who had received HRT than in those who had not, the findings demonstrated.

Lead author Gerardo Heiss remarked that the increased risk of cancers such as lung tumours was "completely unanticipated." Nonetheless, co-author JoAnn Manson noted that the number of women who developed cancer was relatively small and stated that "there's still a lot of uncertainty about the cause of the increased cancer risk."

Wyeth, which makes HRT drugs Premarin and Prempro, responded that the results "provide little new insight into the appropriate use of hormone therapy when it is prescribed to symptomatic, newly menopausal women." The company added that it believes HRT is a good option to relieve menopause symptoms when used appropriately.
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