In addition to other health problems, it’s now being reported that hormone therapy taken by women to counter the effects of menopause can increase the risk of dying from lung cancer. These findings from a recent study represent the latest black mark against the therapy that is already being used much more sparingly than it once was. Researchers pointed out that women should not be using hormone therapy and smoking cigarettes at the same time. This new analysis used data from The Women’s Health Initiative Study. In that study, women took either Prempro, a drug combining estrogen and progestin, or a placebo.

The study was discontinued in 2002 after it was found that the hormone therapy increases the risk of breast cancer. The new analysis looks specifically at lung cancer for the five and a half years that the women took either the drug or the placebo and for more than two years afterward. Dr. Rowan Chlebowski of the Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center in California and lead author of the study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, observed: “We shouldn’t be using both combined hormone therapy and tobacco at the same time.” Dr. Chlebowski said there was one avoidable lung cancer death over eight years for every 100 women who both smoked and took hormone therapy.

Our law firm represents over 600 women who have suffered breast cancer caused by hormone replacement therapy. There are currently between 9,000 and 10,000 lawsuits pending across the United States against Wyeth, Pfizer and other hormone replacement therapy manufacturers. Hopefully, these companies will step up to the plate soon and pay these victims fair compensation for their injuries and suffering. If you need more information, contact Frank Woodson in our firm at 800-898-2034 or by email at Frank.Woodson@beasleyallen.com.

Source: New York Times