There is no clear evidence that the decline in the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is linked to a reported fall in the numbers of new cases of breast cancer, as has been claimed, suggests a study in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care.
The stats and time trends neither back up nor refute the claim, so no firm conclusions can be drawn, say the authors in the last of a series of five critiques of the published data in three major studies on HRT.
A trio of studies – the Collaborative Reanalysis (CR); the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI); and the Million Women Study (MWS) – prompted the use of HRT to tumble, starting in 2002, after they concluded that it causes breast cancer.
Two subsequent studies published in 2006 and 2007 suggested that the drop-off in HRT use was directly linked to a decline in breast cancer rates, a claim that has gained considerable currency.
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