Pfizer Hormones Almost Double Breast Cancer Death Risk in Study - BusinessWeek

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc.’s hormones, once used by millions of women to ease menopause symptoms, almost doubled the death risk from breast cancer, a U.S. study found

The findings from the U.S.-funded Women’s Health Initiative are the first to tie Pfizer’s hormone replacement therapy Prempro, already linked to higher breast cancer and heart disease rates, to increased mortality from tumors.

Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, yesterday won its sixth of 13 jury cases over Prempro’s health risks an hour before the research was reported by the Journal of the American Medical Association. Previous studies suggested tumors fueled by hormone therapy were less aggressive and easier to treat. Pfizer gained Prempro in its $68 billion purchase of Wyeth last year. The hormones had annual sales of more than $2 billion before the study was halted in 2002, leading many women to stop treatment.

“You have more cancers, you have more advanced stage cancers and you aren’t having just more favorable cancers,” lead researcher Rowan Chlebowski, from the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said in a telephone interview. “Women should think critically about if they need this, if their symptoms are significant and if they would persist.”

via businessweek.com

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