Link Between Breast Cancer and Hormone Therapy

A sharp drop in breast cancer rates from 2003 to 2004 is linked to an even larger drop in women's use of hormone therapy that began around 2000, according to a Kaiser Permanente study. The study, conducted at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research, reviewed the histories of 7,386 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and treated at Kaiser Permanente Northwest from 1980 through 2006. "The advantage of this news for women is that while you can't do anything about your genetic risk or family history, you can control what goes in your body. This gives women the chance to do something that decreases breast cancer risk."