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Earlier results from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) showed that women randomized to estrogen plus progestin (E+P) hormone therapy had a modestly higher risk for invasive breast cancer (hazard ratio, 1.29) and were more likely to have abnormal mammograms (Journal Watch General Medicine Jul 15 2003) and mammographically dense breast tissue (JNCI 2005; 97:1366) than were women who took placebo. Now, WHI investigators have analyzed the effect of E+P on breast cancer detection with mammography and biopsy.
The cumulative frequency of abnormal mammograms among WHI participants (mean duration, 5.6 years) was 35.0% in the E+P group versus 23.0% in the placebo group (P<0.001). Mammograms were less sensitive at detecting breast cancer in the E+P g…