Study Shows Withdrawing HRT from Women Cuts Breast Cancer Risk

Withdrawing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) from women reduces the risk of breast cancer, Canadian researchers have shown.

The new study has thrown the safety of hormone replacement into further doubt.

Breast Cancer - Causes, Risks, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Staging, Treatment, Prevention & Prognosis
Breast cancer is a cancer that affects the breasts or mammary glands. Early detection and lifestyle changes help in controlling breast cancer.

The researchers found that a decrease in the number of menopausal women taking HRT has coincided with a 10 per cent decrease in cancer rates.

Fears over the treatment's safety were first raised in 2002 when a major U.S. study linked it to breast cancer, heart disease and strokes.

It led to thousands of British women abandoning the pills, and within three years the numbers using it had halved to one million.

Breast Cancer - Prevention and Management with Lifestyle Changes
Lifestyle choices may or may not cause breast cancer but healthy lifestyle changes can open up avenues beyond breast cancer. Good habits will allow one to fight breast cancer and to live with dignity.

But its link to breast cancer has since been disputed and in 2007 another study found that the risks applied only to those in their 70s and 80s - much older than women who usually take HRT.

Now Canadian researchers have found that the decline in use of HRT prompted by the health scares coincided with a 10 per cent fall in breast cancer rates in their country, reports the Daily Mail.

About Cancer in Women
Cancer is one of the frequently talked about and most feared disease that falls under the genre of lifestyle diseases that have evolved, rather rapidly, in the past two decades.

They found the biggest decline in use of HRT was between 2002 and 2004, when the proportion of women taking it fell from 12.7 per cent to just 4.9 per cent.

Over the same period, the number of breast cancer diagnoses fell by 9.6 per cent.

Breast Lumps
Most breast lumps are caused by hormonal changes in a woman and may not be cancerous. Common causes of breast lumps include fibroadenosis, breast cancer, breast cyst.

Source-ANI