Female exogenous hormones and breast cancer risk lack the most basic animal studies.
There is a saying that there is no smoke without fire and this was elegantly demonstrated with cigarette smoke and lung cancer. Similarly the smoke around exogenous female hormones and breast cancer abounds but the fire burns on unabated. 1 There is no definitive risk equation or established causal relationship, and the layers upon layers of meta-analysis from officialdom have thickened the smoke to such an extent that the average doctor doesn't know what the real and true connection between the exogenous hormones and breast cancer is.2
The FDA approved contraceptives in 1960 without comprehensive animal studies or acceptable risk assessments. This latest Lancet meta-analysis comments on HRT and breast cancer, but without documenting the lifetime exogenous female hormone burden already accumulated by women in their 40s and 50s (with its breast cancer risks), even before embarking on more exogenous hormone burden with HRT, thus compounding the risk.
It is imperative to do the seminal risk assessment of exogenous hormones in animal studies and see if animals exposed to female hormones have increased incidence of breast cancer (and other adverse effects). This data does not exist. Considering the number of women taking exogenous hormones and the prevalence of breast cancer it is an understatement to say basic risk data be made available - as with any drug that now presents to the FDA. Laboratory or other animals do not have a previous history of hormone exposure and thus it is a level playing pitch between those on exogenous hormones and the control animals. There is a powerful drive at present to spread oral contraceptives to all countries especially the poorer areas. Women who take these hormones should demand basic animal data on risk before exposing themselves to risk. Human studies show confusion due to bias and confounding and simple basic data is missing and needs to be obtained.
1. Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Lancet 2019; 394: 1159-68.
2. Rymer J, Brian K, Regan L. HRT and Breast Cancer Risk. BMJ 2019; 367;15928.
Competing interests:
No competing interests
15 October 2019
Eugene Breen
Psychiatrist, Associate Clinical Professor
Mater Misericordiae University Hospital Dublin, University College Dublin
Rapid Response:
Female exogenous hormones and breast cancer risk lack the most basic animal studies.
There is a saying that there is no smoke without fire and this was elegantly demonstrated with cigarette smoke and lung cancer. Similarly the smoke around exogenous female hormones and breast cancer abounds but the fire burns on unabated. 1 There is no definitive risk equation or established causal relationship, and the layers upon layers of meta-analysis from officialdom have thickened the smoke to such an extent that the average doctor doesn't know what the real and true connection between the exogenous hormones and breast cancer is.2
The FDA approved contraceptives in 1960 without comprehensive animal studies or acceptable risk assessments. This latest Lancet meta-analysis comments on HRT and breast cancer, but without documenting the lifetime exogenous female hormone burden already accumulated by women in their 40s and 50s (with its breast cancer risks), even before embarking on more exogenous hormone burden with HRT, thus compounding the risk.
It is imperative to do the seminal risk assessment of exogenous hormones in animal studies and see if animals exposed to female hormones have increased incidence of breast cancer (and other adverse effects). This data does not exist. Considering the number of women taking exogenous hormones and the prevalence of breast cancer it is an understatement to say basic risk data be made available - as with any drug that now presents to the FDA. Laboratory or other animals do not have a previous history of hormone exposure and thus it is a level playing pitch between those on exogenous hormones and the control animals. There is a powerful drive at present to spread oral contraceptives to all countries especially the poorer areas. Women who take these hormones should demand basic animal data on risk before exposing themselves to risk. Human studies show confusion due to bias and confounding and simple basic data is missing and needs to be obtained.
1. Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Lancet 2019; 394: 1159-68.
2. Rymer J, Brian K, Regan L. HRT and Breast Cancer Risk. BMJ 2019; 367;15928.
Competing interests: No competing interests