New Findings on Breast Cancer, Estrogen Use
Longtime users of hormone replacement therapy had a higher risk of localized, but not metastatic, breast cancer, according to an expansive report published in the Oct. 11 issue of the Lancet.
British researchers reanalyzed 51 epidemiological studies of 52,705 women with breast cancer and more than 108,000 women free of the disease to better pinpoint the risks associated with use of hormones. The question of whether HRT increases breast cancer risk has been heavily debated, with most studies suggesting a slight increase in risk. The Lancet analysis also showed that the risk of breast cancer appears to rise with increasing duration of hormone use. The risk, however, largely disappears five years after stopping hormone use.
A weakness of the analysis is that only 12% of the hormone users also used progesterone, which is a common practice now in the United States. Thus, there remains too little information on the use of estrogen with progesterone for long periods to draw firm conclusions about this combination and the risk of breast cancer, according to a commentary also published in the Lancet.
Smoking, Genital Warts a Combined Cancer Risk
Women who smoke and are also infected with genital warts have a significantly higher risk of genital cancer than other women, according to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
One particular strain of genital warts, known as HPV16, increased the risk of cancer by six times in smokers, reported researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Smoking and HPV16 have been known to have an influence on the risk of cervical cancer, but the study also showed an increased risk in vulval cancer. Both smoking and HPV16 independently increase the risk of genital cancer, but women with both risk factors had 18.8 times the risk.
Eating Disorders Linked to Childhood Anxieties
Eating disorders may have their roots in the emergence of childhood anxieties, according to a study published in Acta Psychiatric Scandinavica.
Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University found that about 60% of the women they studied also had anxiety disorders. In about 94% of those cases, the anxiety disorders began in childhood.
The typical woman afflicted by anxiety and an eating disorder is intensely self-critical and self-conscious and fears looking silly in public. The researchers suggest that food binges temporarily relieve anxiety, but feelings of anxiety, guilt and fullness lead to purging.
The study suggests that early detection of anxiety disorders in children may help identify those at risk of an eating disorder later.
It’s Not Your Child’s Medicine--It’s Your Child
Many of the symptoms commonly attributed to stimulant medication given to children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are actually preexisting characteristics of the children.
Moreover, these characteristics often improve with stimulant use, according to a study in the October issue of Pediatrics.
Australian scientists examined 125 children with ADHD who were taking methylphenidate (commonly known by its brand name Ritalin) and dexamphetamine, another popular treatment for ADHD. They found that both medications clearly caused appetite suppression and that dexamphetamine also caused insomnia. However, other symptoms--such as crying, irritability, anxiousness, sadness and nightmares--did not worsen for the children on medication and may even improve from use of the drugs.
The researchers noted that very few of the children had severe side effects on either medication. The study used only moderate doses of the medications. Different doses and spacing of those doses may result in different side effect profiles than reported in this study, the authors noted.
