This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Sign in
Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

NICE guidance - HRT and breast cancer risk

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Breast cancer risk and HRT

  • the baseline risk of breast cancer for women around menopausal age varies from one woman to another according to the presence of underlying risk factors

  • HRT with oestrogen alone is associated with little or no change in the risk of breast cancer

  • HRT with oestrogen and progestogen can be associated with an increase in the risk of breast cancer

  • any increase in the risk of breast cancer is related to treatment duration and reduces after stopping HRT

Absolute rates of breast cancer for different types of HRT compared with no HRT (or placebo), different durations of HRT use and time since stopping HRT for menopausal women

  • difference in breast cancer incidence per 1000 menopausal women over 7.5 years (95% confidence interval) (baseline population risk in the UK over 7.5 years: 22.48 per 1000)

Current HRT users

Treatment duration <5 years

Treatment duration 5-10 years

>5 years since stopping treatment

Women on oestrogen alone

RCT estimate

4 fewer (-11 to 8)

No available data

No available data

5 fewer (-11 to 2)

Women on oestrogen alone

Observational estimate

6 more (1 to 12

4 more (1 to 9)

5 more (-1 to 14)

5 fewer (-9 to -1)

Women on oestrogen + progestogen

RCT estimate

5 more (-4 to 36)

No available data

No available data

8 more (1 to 17)

Women on oestrogen + progestogen

Observational estimate

17 more (14 to 20)

12 more (6 to 19)

21 more (9 to 37)

9 fewer (-16 to 13

Reference:

Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Create a free account

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2024 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.