American women who gave up hormone therapy after a study linked the menopause treatment to breast cancer and heart disease also cut back on mammograms, perhaps as a result of fewer doctor visits, researchers said. Mammography rates fell in 2005 for the first time since at least 1987, stumping public health officials who recommend routine use to detect small, easier-to-treat tumors. Use of Pfizer Inc. (PFE)’s Prempro hormone replacement plummeted after a U.S. government study in 2002 tied it to the potentially deadly side effects, a report in the journal Cancer found.
