No increased risk of breast Ca, MI, or stroke in French women taking HT?

At least there were no significant differences between French women taking HT and an unexposed control group for these three conditions. That was the preliminary finding from the first national prospective follow-up phase of the MISSION Study shared by Drazen S.F. Postruznik, MD, of Laboratoire Theramex, Societe de la Division Merck Serono, Monaco, at last month's North American Menopause Society's (NAMS) annual meeting. However, it was a significantly different story when it came to venous thromboembolism. Its incidence was actually greater for the women in the control group (0.57%) than in the "exposed group" (0.15%). But researchers believe that's explained by the physicians' choice of patients who were older and heavier.

Investigators set out to assess complications in randomly selected postmenopausal patients in two groups: 2,693 women taking hormone therapy commonly prescribed in France and 2,256 controls. Results showed that breast cancer incidence in the HT group was 0.64% versus 0.70% in the controls (RR exposed/control=0.914; 95% CI, 0.449-1.858). Premenopausal use of progestins didn't appear to influence breast cancer risk in either group. Incidence of postmenopausal MI and stroke didn't differ significantly in the HT group versus the controls (0.26% and 0.32%, respectively).