
This increased risk of breast cancer does not appear until the hormones have been taken for at least two years. Another way of expressing the increased risk caused by Prempro is that each year, among 10,000 postmenopausal women taking estrogen/progestin, eight more will have invasive breast cancer. During that time, 166 women taking the hormone combination developed invasive breast cancer, compared to 124 women on placebo, an overall increase of 26 percent.
Serial number pempro trial#
Prempro is a combination of a synthetic estrogen (conjugated estrogen - Premarin) with a progestin (medroxyprogesterone - Provera).īy the time the trial was stopped, women had been taking their pills for an average of 5.2 years each. Half of the trail participants were given an estrogen/progestin combination in the form of Prempro, and the other half was given a look-alike placebo with no active ingredients. Just over 16,000 women participated in this section of the trial. The WHI began in 1991 as the first randomized clinical trial to look at the long-term health effects of post menopausal hormone therapy. These women were volunteer participants in the Women's Health Initiative, the largest and longest trial ever of estrogen therapy (ET) and HT.

On July 9, 2002, officials from the National Institutes of Health announced that one form of hormone therapy (HT), Prempro, was found to cause breast cancer in previously healthy women. Estrogen/Progestin Combination Hormone Therapy Causes Breast Cancer Ten years later, the results of the WHI continue to be celebrated in the prevention of numerous new breast cancer cases worldwide.

In numerous countries where HT was used frequently by women, breast cancer rates decreased coincident with changes in prescribing and HT use patterns. Following the release of WHI results, there was a sharp decline in breast cancer incidence rates in the U.S. The decline in MHT has been paralleled by a concomitant decrease in breast cancer incidence rates.
