Estrogen causes uterine cancer?
Two reports in the New England Journal of Medicine strengthened the probability that menopausal women taking estrogen treatment are likely to develop cancer of the lining of the uterus.
The first, prepared by a team led by Dr. Noel Weiss of the University of Washington, stated that the incidence of cancer of the uterus had generally increased from about 20 percent to 60 percent between 1967 and 1973, depending upon the geographical location of the middle-aged women surveyed. Weiss said that the magnitude of the increase has rarely been recalled in the history of cancer reporting in the US. He added that "the importanct point is that it is unlikely that the disease is due to some characterissstic of the women rather than the medicine they are taking."
The second report, a study conducted by Dr. Thomas Mack of the University of Southern California among women at a retirement community near Los Angeles, showed that no drug other than estrogen was significantly associated with cancer of the lining of the uterus. Dr. Mack found that women who take estrogen during menopause have about eight times as much chances of getting the disease as those who do not.
Meanwhile, the risks must be balanced with the advantages and if symptoms are disabling, at least low-dose, short term estrogen therapy would seem to be indicated.
