Abstract
Estrogen is a well-known mitogen in human breast epithelium but the action of progestogen
is complex and incompletely understood. During the last years, accumulating data from
animal, clinical and observational studies suggest a proliferative effect in breast
tissue when progestogen is added to estrogen. Findings in surrogate markers like breast
density add to clinical and epidemiological reports indicating that continuous combined
HRT may carry a higher risk of breast cancer than treatment with estrogen alone. Whether
the results are valid for all progestogens remains to elucidated. It is also clear
that not all women respond in the same way to the same treatment and the biological
basis for the marked individual variation in breast response has to be clarified.
Further knowledge about the role of androgens and of the impact of different treatment
regimens is important and prospective randomized clinical studies are needed.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
June 10,
2004
Received in revised form:
April 28,
2004
Received:
December 16,
2003
Identification
Copyright
© 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
