Menopausal hormone therapy and breast cancer risk: a population-based cohort study of 1.3 million women in Norway

Menée en Norvège auprès de 1,3 million de femmes âgées d'au moins 45 ans (durée médiane de suivi : 12,7 ans), cette étude analyse l'association entre l'utilisation d'un traitement hormonal substitutif et le risque de cancer du sein (33 654 cas)

British Journal of Cancer, sous presse, 2024, article en libre accès

Résumé en anglais

Background: It is important to monitor the association between menopausal hormone therapy (HT) use and breast cancer (BC) risk with contemporary estimates, and specifically focus on HT types and new drugs.

Methods: We estimated hazard ratios (HR) of BC risk according to HT type, administration route and individual drugs, overall and stratified by body mass index (BMI), molecular subtype and detection mode, with non-HT use as reference.

Results: We included 1,275,783 women, 45+ years, followed from 2004, for a median of 12.7 years. Oral oestrogen combined with daily progestin was associated with the highest risk of BC (HR 2.42, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.31–2.54), with drug-specific HRs ranging from Cliovelle®: 1.63 (95% CI 1.35–1.96) to Kliogest®: 2.67 (2.37–3.00). Vaginal oestradiol was not associated with BC risk. HT use was more strongly associated with luminal A cancer (HR 1.97, 95% CI 1.86–2.09) than other molecular subtypes, and more strongly with interval (HR 2.00, 95% CI: 1.83–2.30) than screen-detected (HR 1.33, 95% CI 1.26–1.41) BC in women 50–71 years. HRs for HT use decreased with increasing BMI.

Conclusions: The use of oral and transdermal HT was associated with an increased risk of BC. The associations varied according to HT type, individual drugs, molecular subtype, detection mode and BMI.