FRIDAY, Aug. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Taking estrogen doesn't
increase the risk of developing or dying from lung cancer among
postmenopausal women who've had a hysterectomy, a new study has
found.
Previous research about the effects of combined estrogen plus
progestin therapy produced conflicting results and no studies have
clarified the influence of the use of estrogen alone, the authors
of the new study noted.
The researchers, Dr. Rowan T. Chlebowski, of the Los Angeles
Biomedical Research Institute, and colleagues analyzed data from
10,739 women, aged 50 to 79, who had undergone a hysterectomy and
who had been randomly selected to take estrogen or a placebo as
part of the Women's Health Initiative trial.
There were 34 lung cancer deaths among women in the estrogen
group, compared with 33 such deaths in the placebo group, according
to the report published online Aug. 13 in the
Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The findings show that the use of estrogen alone was not
associated with lung cancer incidence or death, Chlebowski's team
stated in a news release from the journal's publisher.
More information
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about
estrogen.