CHICAGO (AFX) - A leading US medical research agency announced it scrapped a trial involving a commonly-prescribed hormone replacement therapy because of an increased risk of breast cancer.
The National Institutes of Health aborted the trial of a combined estrogen/progestin supplement after researchers detected a 26 pct increase in breast cancer risk among volunteers, a little over five years into the exercise.
The study was scheduled to run until 2005 and was designed to evaluate how useful the hormonal treatment was in protecting menopausal women from heart disease.
While HRT is best known for alleviating menopause symptoms (hot flashes, night sweats) and protecting against the brittle-bone disease osteoporosis, it has shown promise for protecting against other diseases, notably heart disease and breast and colorectal cancer.
The NIH trial was devised to explore the therapy's promise in relation to heart disease -- one of the top killers of women in the US and Europe.
After tracking the 16,000 volunteers over five years, the researchers with the Women's Health Initiative concluded that the therapy was simply too risky.
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