Word: estrogen
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Appropriate treatment is the big question. Estrogen replacement to stem the loss can increase the risk of breast cancer and, unless progestin is added in, endometrial cancer. A new medication, raloxifene, appears to stabilize bone loss while reducing the risk of breast cancer. Unlike traditional hormone-replacement therapy, however, raloxifene doesn't ease other menopausal symptoms, like hot flashes...
...ESTROGEN ALTERNATIVE Raloxifene, which prevents osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, may also reduce risk factors for heart disease--like high cholesterol levels. It's not as effective as estrogen, but unlike the hormone, it's not linked to breast cancer...
...They noticed that it not only helped keep cancer from returning in the affected breast but also cut in half the number of new cancers in the other breast. Animal studies suggested that tamoxifen latches on to receptors in breast-cancer cells that would ordinarily take up the hormone estrogen--a substance known to fuel the growth of cancer. By keeping the estrogen out, tamoxifen essentially cuts off the cancer cells' fuel supply...
Researchers knew--and made clear to participants going in--that the drug was not without danger. While tamoxifen acts as an estrogen blocker in the breast, it acts more like estrogen itself in other parts of the body. That's why the scientists were on the lookout for uterine cancer and effects on the circulatory system. And while such problems did show up, so did the hoped-for protection. Women who took the tamoxifen had a 45% lower incidence of breast malignancies than those who took placebos. Results were so dramatic that the scientists stopped the study and gave...
HORMONES OF A DILEMMA Adding progestin to estrogen-replacement therapy may weaken estrogen's healthy effect on the heart. But estrogen alone may raise the risk of uterine cancer...