Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with estrogen and progestin seems to reduce the risk of colon cancer in women who are past menopause, new research shows. However, the cancers that do occur seem to be more advanced than those seen in non-HRT users. Most of the news regarding HRT in recent years has been bad. Just this week, the National Institutes of Health announced that the estrogen-only arm of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trial was being stopped early after the therapy was tied to an increased risk of stroke. This follows the termination of the estrogen/progestin arm in 2002 due to an observed increase in breast cancer, thrombosis, stroke, and heart disease events among HRT users.
