Hormone replacement linked to gallbladder cancer

Last Updated: 2002-06-27 12:02:39 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Megan Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study from Italy has found a link between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in menopause and increased gallbladder cancer risk.

The findings are the first evidence of such an association, Dr. Silvano Gallus, of Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri," Milan, told Reuters Health.

The study participants included 31 women aged 45 to 79 with gallbladder cancer and 3,702 healthy women matched by age. All were participating in a 12-year study of digestive tract cancers.

In the June 10th International Journal of Cancer, the authors report that women who had ever used HRT had more than triple the likelihood of developing gallbladder cancer, and this risk tended to increase with the length of HRT use.

Because gallbladder cancer is quite rare, and the increased risk is rather small, the findings have limited implications for individual and public health, Gallus said, but they do help provide additional information on how to assess HRT's risks and benefits.

SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer 2002;99:762-763.

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