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Jack E. Meyer, MD
Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, Mass

JAMA. 1993;270(22):2685-2686.

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

To the Editor.

—Recent epidemiologic data have refocused attention on the role played by estrogen and progesterone in the etiology of breast cancer.¹ In theory, the greater the lifetime exposure to estrogen, the higher the likelihood for the development of breast cancer. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a common treatment for the symptoms of menopause as well as protective therapy for subsequent osteoporosis and coronary artery disease. This treatment has not been shown to increase the risk for breast cancer in women other than those with a strong family history or more than 10 years of therapy.^2,3

It is well known that as women approach and pass through menopause the breast parenchyma becomes less dense on mammography. In this setting, subtle areas of architectural distortion and tiny occult malignant masses are more clearly visible. In addition, most false-negative mammograms of clinically palpable malignant masses are due to obscuration . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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