This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Carlo Campagnoli, MD
Sant'Anna Gynecological Hospital

Nicoletta Biglia, MD; Piero Sismondi, MD
University of Turin Turin, Italy

JAMA. 1996;275(15):1159.

	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.

—Investigations of the effect of progestin added to ERT in relation to breast cancer risk have produced inconsistent results. Dr Stanford and colleagues¹ point out that progestins usually prescribed in Northern Europe (levonorgestrel at a dose of 0.25 mg/d or norethisterone acetate at a dose of 5 to 10 mg/d) differ from those most commonly used in the United States (medroxyprogesterone acetate at a dose of 10 mg/d), and they suggest that the different androgenic action of these drugs could possibly account for the observed differences in study results.

Oral conjugated estrogens, through hepatocellular action, cause biological modifications potentially protective against breast cancer such as an increase of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG)² and a reduction of insulinlike growth factor I (IGF-I) serum levels.³ SHBG is able to bind steroid hormones (estradiol and testosterone), thereby reducing their biological activity.⁴ IGF-I is a potent . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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