Hormone replacement therapy in cancer survivors: a con opinion

Abstract

As more women are cured of their cancers, the issue of hormone replacement therapy in survivors of hormonally sensitive tumors has increasingly been debated. In patients with hormonally sensitive tumors, hormone replacement therapy carries a theoretical risk of stimulating recurrent disease as well as stimulating other hormonally related cancers. The author argues that at present the most prudent approach with this population is to consider alternative treatments until the ongoing, randomized clinical trials have been evaluated with adequate long-term follow-up.