July 15th, 2009

Researchers in Denmark found that women who took hormone therapy after menopause had an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer, reports The New York Times.

In a study of more than 900,000 Danish women ages 50 to 79, the scientists found 140 extra cases of ovarian cancer linked to hormone treatment over eight years. That translated to a 38 percent greater risk of contracting the disease, compared with women who did not receive the therapy.

Hormone therapy accounted for 5 percent of the cases of ovarian cancer in the study period, the researchers reported in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Even though this share seems low, ovarian cancer remains highly fatal, so accordingly this risk warrants consideration,” wrote the researchers, led by Lina Steinrud Morch of Copenhagen University.

The findings were similar to those in the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative study, which was stopped early because it found an increased risk of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, strokes and other health problems from hormone therapy.

Use of the treatment plunged after those findings were reported, and sales of Prempro, the combined estrogen-progestin therapy sold by Wyeth, have fallen 50 percent since 2001, to around $1 billion a year.