American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 125, No. 6: 939-947
Copyright © 1987 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
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A PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY OF POSTMENOPAUSAL HORMONE USE AND RISK OF BREAST CANCER IN US WOMEN
1The Channing Laboratory, Department of Preventive Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, MA
2The Chainning Laboratory, Departments of Medicine and Preventive Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, MA
3Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health Boston, MA
4The Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford University Oxford, England
Reprint requests to Dr. Frank E. Speizer, 180 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, and to R. Peto, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford University, Oxford, England, OX2 6HE
The association between history of postmenopausal hormone use as of 1976 and breast cancer incidence during 1976–1980 was examined prospectively among 33,335 married, postmenopausal registered nurses aged 30–55 years at entry. Half the women reported postmenopausal hormone use, and one fourth had taken these drugs for over five years. During 1976–1980, 221 new cases of breast cancer were identified. The relative risk (RR) for those who had used postmenopausal hormones when compared with women who had never used them was 1.1 (95% confidence limits (CL) 0.8, 1.4); for current and past users, the relative risks were 1.0 (95% CL 0.7, 1.4) and 1.3 (95% CL 0.9, 1.8), respectively. These ratios were not substantially modified by whether or not a woman's ovaries had been removed or by other known breast cancer risk factors. No increase in breast cancer risk was apparent among women who had used postmenopausal hormones for less than five years (RR = 1.0, 95% CL 0.5, 1.6). An apparent effect among the subgroup of women who had used them for five to nine years (RR = 1.5, 95% CL 1.0, 2.2) was not present among the few women with longer-term use (RR = 0.9, 95% CL 0.4, 1.6). These findings are moderately reassuring, but since there are as yet few women in this cohort with long-term durations of use and, particularly, with long intervals since first use, continued follow-up of this and other cohorts will be required before firm conclusions can be drawn, especially among specific subgroups.
breast neoplasms; estrogens
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