The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7209 p147
3 August 2002

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Continuous HRT may protect against endometrial cancer

Women who use long-term continuous hormone replacement therapy (HRT) do not have an increased risk of endometrial cancer and may even be protected from the disease, results of a study suggest (BMJ 2002;325:239).

Of 534 postmenopausal women taking part in the study, 360 had previously taken HRT in which oestrogen and progestogen were given sequentially, 164 had not used HRT and 10 had taken oestrogen-only HRT. Subsequently, the women received continuous combined HRT and were followed up for an average of 4.4 years.

At baseline, 21 women had an abnormal endometrium but after nine months of continuous combined HRT, the endometrium had reverted to normal. In addition, no cases of endometrial cancer developed during the study.

The researchers comment that the reversal of endometrial hyperplasia seen in the study may relate to the specific HRT combination used — estradiol 2mg and norethisterone 1mg — which has a relatively strong progestogen component.