This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (3)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Oncology  • Breast Cancer  • Women's Health  • Menopause  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

A Single-Edged Sword

Peter H. Gann, MD, ScD; Monica Morrow, MD

JAMA. 2003;289:3304-3306.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial of estrogen plus progestin hormone therapy represents a major landmark in medical research. The study demonstrates that alteration of a woman's basic hormonal physiology over decades in the interest of long-term disease prevention is fraught with hazard.¹ The WHI investigators terminated the trial after an assessment of the overall risk-benefit ratio of this combined hormone therapy regimen failed to demonstrate a benefit. A statistically significant 26% increase in breast cancer incidence contributed to the overall negative effect of estrogen plus progestin.¹

In the past, women and their physicians had been reassured that although combined hormone therapy increases breast cancer risk, this increase is observed in cancers of a favorable type,^2-3 is associated with long duration of use,⁴ and does not result in increased mortality.⁵ In this issue of THE JOURNAL, the study by Chlebowski and colleagues⁶ . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliations: Departments of Preventive Medicine (Dr Gann) and Surgery (Dr Morrow), and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center (Drs Gann and Morrow), The Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Ill.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Influence of Estrogen Plus Progestin on Breast Cancer and Mammography in Healthy Postmenopausal Women: The Women's Health Initiative Randomized Trial
Rowan T. Chlebowski, Susan L. Hendrix, Robert D. Langer, Marcia L. Stefanick, Margery Gass, Dorothy Lane, Rebecca J. Rodabough, Mary Ann Gilligan, Michele G. Cyr, Cynthia A. Thomson, Janardan Khandekar, Helen Petrovitch, and Anne McTiernan
JAMA. 2003;289(24):3243-3253.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Relationship Between Long Durations and Different Regimens of Hormone Therapy and Risk of Breast Cancer
Christopher I. Li, Kathleen E. Malone, Peggy L. Porter, Noel S. Weiss, Mei-Tzu C. Tang, Kara L. Cushing-Haugen, and Janet R. Daling
JAMA. 2003;289(24):3254-3263.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Hormone replacement therapy: pathobiological aspects of hormone-sensitive cancers in women relevant to epidemiological studies on HRT: a mini-review
Dietel et al.
Hum Reprod 2005;20:2052-2060.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

More Results from WHI on Breast Cancer Risk with Combined Hormone Therapy
Journal Watch Cardiology 2003;2003:7-7.
FULL TEXT  

More Results from WHI on Breast Cancer Risk with Combined Hormone Therapy
JWatch General 2003;2003:1-1.
FULL TEXT