Menopausal symptoms have been suggested to be an indicator of better prognosis among patients treated for breast cancer, because women who experience these symptoms usually have a lower level of estrogen. We tested this hypothesis in a population-based, prospective cohort study involving 4,842 women with stage 0 to III primary breast cancer who were enrolled in the Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival Study between March 2002 and April 2006, were aged 20 to 75 years, and were recruited 6 months post-diagnosis. They were followed-up by in-person surveys and record linkages with the vital statistics registry. Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate the association of menopausal symptoms at baseline with breast cancer recurrence. Approximately 56% of patients experienced at least one menopausal symptom, including hot flashes, night sweats, and/or vaginal dryness at baseline. During a median follow-up period of 5.3 years, 720 women had a recurrence. Experiencing hot flashes or having ≥2 menopausal symptoms was associated with lower risk of recurrence among premenopausal women (hazard ratio [HR]=0.77, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.62-0.96 for hot flashes; 0.73, 0.56-0.96 for ≥2 menopausal symptoms). Lower recurrence risk in relation to hot flashes was also observed among women who were not overweight/obese (HR=0.78, 95% CI: 0.64-0.99), those with relatively low waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) (HR=0.77, 95% CI: 0.61-0.97), and those who used tamoxifen (HR=0.75, 95% CI: 0.58-0.98). Consistently experiencing multiple menopausal symptoms was associated with lower recurrence risk among women with low WHR or who used tamoxifen. This large, population-based cohort study of women with breast cancer confirms that experiencing menopausal symptoms is an indicator of favorable breast cancer prognosis. © 2013 Chen et al.
CITATION STYLE
Chen, Y., Dorjgochoo, T., Bao, P. P., Zheng, Y., Cai, H., Lu, W., & Shu, X. O. (2013). Menopausal Symptoms among Breast Cancer Patients: A Potential Indicator of Favorable Prognosis. PLoS ONE, 8(9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075926
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