Menopause treatment may worsen lung cancer survival odds, study finds

Last update: May 30, 2009 - 6:17 PM

There's more troubling news about hormone therapy for menopause symptoms: Lung cancer seems more likely to prove fatal in women who are taking estrogen-progestin pills, a study suggests.

Hormone users who developed lung cancer were 60 percent more likely to die from the disease as women who weren't taking hormones, according to results reported Saturday.

The new findings mean that smokers should stop taking hormones, and those who have not yet started hormones should give it careful thought, said Dr. Rowan Chlebowski of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He led the analysis and presented results at a meeting of the oncology society in Orlando, Fla.

It's the latest finding from the Women's Health Initiative, a federal study that gave 16,608 women either Prempro or dummy pills. The study was stopped in 2002 when researchers saw more breast cancers in those on Prempro, the estrogen-progestin pill made by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. They continue to follow what happens to women in the study.

"It's another piece of evidence to suggest that hormone-replacement therapy should be used with great caution," said Dr. Richard Schilsky, a cancer specialist at the University of Chicago and president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Women who take hormones already are advised to use the lowest dose for the shortest time possible, doctors said.

Still, there have been only 106 lung cancer deaths in the study so far -- too few to make sweeping conclusions about risk, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society.

DRUG MIXES CAN MAKE BREAST CANCER RECUR

Breast cancer survivors risk having their disease come back if they use certain antidepressants while also taking the cancer prevention drug tamoxifen, worrisome new research shows.

About 500,000 women in the United States take tamoxifen, which cuts in half the chances of a breast cancer recurrence. Many of them also take antidepressants for hot flashes, because hormone pills aren't considered safe after breast cancer.

Doctors have long known that some antidepressants can lower the amount of tamoxifen's active form in the bloodstream.

The study is the largest to look at the issue. It found that using these interfering drugs -- including Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft -- can virtually wipe out the benefit tamoxifen provides.

But the bottom line is the same: Not all antidepressants pose this problem, and women should talk to their doctors about which ones are best.

TREATMENT PROMISING AGAINST SKIN CANCER

For the first time, a novel treatment that trains the immune system to fight cancer has shown modest benefit in late-stage testing against the deadly skin cancer melanoma.

In a study of about 180 patients already getting standard therapy, the treatment doubled the number of patients whose tumors shrank, and extended the time until their cancer worsened by about six weeks.

The National Cancer Institute developed the treatment, which has not yet been commercially licensed. The institute sponsored the study, along with Novartis AG.

The results need to be confirmed in a longer, bigger study.

NEWS SERVICES

Recent Health + Wellness stories

Placebo effect: Belief in a treatment helps you feel better, a powerful plus, scientists say - May 30, 2009

Placebo effect: Belief in a treatment helps you feel better, a powerful plus, scientists say - EDITOR'S NOTE: Ten years and $2.5 billion in research have found no cures from alternative medicine. Yet these mostly unproven treatments are now mainstream and used by more than a third of all Americans. This is one in an occasional Associated Press series on their use and potential risks. More

Comments are temporarily unavailable

Our reader comments feature is currently undergoing maintenance. Please check back to comment on this story and join the discussion. We apologize for any inconvenience.