Doctors today moved to quell the fears of British women receiving hormone replacement treatment (HRT) after a US study found that a type of pill they tested increased the chances of contracting breast cancer.
It emerged last night that an eight-year study into the long-term effects of HRT in post-menopausal women has been abandoned three years early as it had shown users of a certain pill had a 26% higher chance of contracting breast cancer. There were also increased chances of heart attacks and strokes.
But today, Professor David Purdie, of the centre for metabolic diseases at Hull University, was among those calling for the findings to be viewed with perspective.
He said that while the study was interesting, media coverage of its findings had been alarmist. He said quoting percentage increases inflated the risks of the diseases out of proportion.
Also given wide coverage today were the findings that as well as the 26% rise in the chances of breast cancer among HRT users, the risk of having a heart attack rose by 29% and strokes by 41%.
However, Prof Purdie said that the less alarmist way of looking at the figures was that among 10,000 women there were an extra eight cases of breast cancer, eight more strokes, eight extra blood clots and seven more coronary heart disease events than normal per year.
Jacque Rossouw, who led the study, said this morning: "It's not an urgent alert situation. There's no emergency here." However, speaking on the Radio 4 Today programme, he added: "In the longer term, if you use it [HRT] for several years, you are not likely to gain health - you are likely to lose health."
Tthe study did find that women receiving HRT also had double the risk of blood clots compared with those unknowingly taking dummy pills during the trial and overall cardiovascular risk was increased by 22% in the HRT group.
Prof Purdie told the same Today broadcast that HRT users would be scared by the coverage but added, "you are not right to be scared." He stressed that only part of the study had been stopped and trials into oestrogen-only HRT were continuing.
"Any relative risk, like a percentage like that, is so dangerous because you've got to make sure that the population understands what was the risk that they would have run if they hadn't taken the treatment concerned."
A spokesman for the UK industry-supported organisation HRT Aware said: "There is a vast array of HRT products prescribed in the UK ... results should not be applied to any HRT product other than the one investigated in the trial.
"The specific dose investigated is not available in the UK, but if women need further information about the type of HRT they are using they should speak to their doctor."
A total of 16,608 post-menopausal women, aged 50 to 79, took part in the trial at 40 US centres. Half were given a daily tablet containing a combination of the female hormones oestrogen and progestin, a version of progesterone. The rest had a matching placebo pill.
The breast cancer finding was the decisive factor in ending the study early and releasing the results on the website of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Another arm of the US study, looking at the effect of oestrogen alone and involving 11,000 women who had undergone womb removal, is continuing.
Gorman: "don't stop taking the tablets"
Former MP Teresa Gorman rubbished the study. Ms Gorman, who is 70, said: "My message to women is don't stop taking the tablets. There's massive evidence that the quality of life for women is much much greater when they are accessing this treatment."
