Menopause treatment linked to longer survival in breast cancer patients

A recent study in the U.S. has found that estrogen creams, commonly used to alleviate menopause symptoms, are not only safe for older women diagnosed with breast cancer, but may also correlate with increased survival rates.

The research, which was presented at the ASCO meeting, indicated that postmenopausal breast cancer survivors who used hormone creams experienced a reduced risk of disease progression, recurrence, or death. These findings challenge previous concerns that the creams could stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells that rely on hormones.

Vaginal estrogen creams are frequently used to treat menopause symptoms such as vaginal dryness, discomfort and pain during intercourse. As a result of previous concerns, many breast cancer survivors avoid these treatments.

Researchers reviewed national database records on 18,620 female breast cancer patients aged 65 and older who were diagnosed between 2010-2017, including 800 who used vaginal estrogen creams.

After accounting for patients’ race, cancer stage, treatments and other factors, the researchers saw a statistically significant increase in overall survival among patients who used vaginal estrogen.

The cream users also had a significant increase in breast cancer-specific survival, the interval from diagnosis to death from breast cancer.

On average, estrogen cream users had a 47 per cent lower risk of dying from breast cancer and a 44 per cent lower risk of death from any cause during the study period, compared to non-users.

Even in patients whose tumours were known to use hormones for growth, estrogen cream use was associated with a 38 per cent lower risk of death from any cause.

Estrogen cream users with hormone-positive breast cancer also had a lower risk of death from breast cancer, but that difference was not statistically significant.

Use of the creams for more than seven years appeared to confer an additional survival benefit.

“These findings add to a rising contemporary paradigm shift that local hormone therapy is not associated with increased risk to overall or breast cancer-specific survival, which has important clinical implications,” the researchers said.