Study Shows Hormone Replacement Therapy May Reduce Pancreatic Cancer Risk

Dr. Enrique Jacome

One type of hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women may decrease the risk of pancreatic cancer, a new study suggests. In the study, women from California who took estrogen-only hormone replacement therapy for symptoms of menopause were 41 percent less likely to develop pancreatic cancer over a 14-year period than women who never took hormone replacement therapy.

The new study involved more than 118,000 female public school professionals in California who were surveyed in 1995 to 1996 about their use of hormone replacement therapy and current or past use of oral contraceptives, and were followed until 2009.

At the start of the study, 60 percent of the women were postmenopausal, 25 percent of whom were current users of estrogen-only HRT, and 33 percent of whom were current users of estrogen-plus-progestin HRT. During the study period, 323 women (0.27 percent) were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

There was no link between the use of estrogen-plus-progestin HRT and pancreatic cancer risk. The age of participants at menopause, and whether they'd ever had children or breast-fed, were also not associated with pancreatic cancer risk.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California and was published online Sept. 5 in the journal American Journal of Epidemiology.

www.sottopelletherapy.com/doctors/enrique-jacome-md