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• Observed risk present in those who currently use hormone therapy.
• Risk levels did not differ by type of hormone therapy.
• Former hormone therapy use not linked to increased risk.
PHILADELPHIA — Women planning on taking hormone therapy for the treatment of menopausal symptoms should be aware of a possible increased risk for ovarian cancer, according to data presented at the Ninth Annual AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held here Nov. 7-10, 2010.
“This study is consistent with previous recommendations that say if women are going to take hormones they should only take them in the short term,” said Konstantinos Tsilidis, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford.
Tsilidis and colleagues analyzed the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, which included 126,920 women, of whom 424 were diagnosed with ovarian cancer over nine years of follow-up.
Although former use of hormone therapy was not associated with increased risk, current use of hormone therapy was linked with a 29 percent increased risk.
Risk levels did not differ by type of hormone therapy (estrogen only vs. estrogen plus progestin), specific hormonal constituents, regimens and routes of administration of hormone therapy, or by ovarian cancer histology.
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The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, the AACR is the world’s oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes 32,000 basic, translational and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and more than 90 other countries. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants, research fellowships and career development awards. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 18,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment and patient care. Including Cancer Discovery, the AACR publishes seven major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention; and Cancer Prevention Research. AACR journals represented 20 percent of the market share of total citations in 2009. The AACR also publishes CR, a magazine for cancer survivors and their families, patient advocates, physicians and scientists.
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