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Dec. 20--U.S. breast cancer rates plunged more than 7 percent in 2003 because, doctors say, women used fewer menopause hormones, but it's difficult to know if Victoria County presents a similar trend.
Cancers take years to form, so going off hormones would not instantly prevent new tumors. But tumors that had been developing might stop growing, shrink or disappear, doctors theorized at last week's symposium in San Antonio.
Connie Murray, a 58-year-old women's health advocate at Citizens Medical Center, said she was excited to learn the results of the study that showed a drop in the national breast cancer rate.
"It means that hopefully, before long, there will be a cure for everyone," said Murray, who was diagnosed with breast cancer 12 years ago. "This at least means we're taking giant steps forward."
Millions of women quit taking menopause hormones after a 2002 federal study found that the pills raised the risk of breast cancer. Murray said she was not taking the hormones before she was diagnosed.
Dr. Rowan Chlebowski, of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, told The Associated Press the news is "better than a cure" because the decline in cancer rates means new cases never developed.
About 14,000 fewer women were diagnosed with the disease than had been expected, researchers reported Thursday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Cases dropped most among women 50 and older -- the age group taking hormones.
In Victoria County, it's estimated that about 53 women are diagnosed each year with breast cancer.
Dr. James Neumann, a member of Victoria Radiology Associates, said that because that number is minimal -- and because if a 7 percent drop has occurred here, that it'd be only four fewer yearly cancer cases -- it's tough to know if the trend is a local one, too.
"We have such a small population that it's tough to draw statistical comparisons," Neumann said. "The base population just isn't big enough."
Pam Matthys, the oncology data coordinator for Citizens, shared statistics about breast cancer patients who sought treatment at the hospital from 2001 to last year.
But, she said, other Victoria County women may have sought out-of-town treatment or care at DeTar Healthcare System in that time, so these figures may not represent the total local picture.
But cases at Citizens -- from 2001 to last year -- indicate the national trend is not reflected here.
In 2001, the hospital treated 51 new cases, and, in 2002, treated 48. But a year after the 2002 hormone study was released, the hospital treated 51 cases -- three more than the previous year, instead of a 7 percent decrease like the nation experienced.
It is also unknown if any of the women among the new cases were taking hormones.
A DeTar spokeswoman said Monday that she doesn't have statistics on the number of breast cancer cases that hospital has treated in the last five years. Similar telephone calls to the Victoria City-County Health Department and the local American Cancer Society -- to learn countywide statistics -- proved fruitless.
Within a year of the 2002 study -- which, again, warned that hormone use could increase breast cancer risks -- about half of women nationwide who used hormones stopped.
But doctors worry that women with severe menopausal symptoms will overreact to the risks and deny themselves the benefits of hormones.
"There are some women who really require treatment. ... I worry that they will be talked out of it," said Dr. JoAnn Manson, a women's health expert at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, to the Associated Press.
About 2 million women start menopause each year in the U.S., but only about one-fourth have moderate to severe symptoms lasting longer than four years, Manson added.
When women decide to use hormones to treat menopausal symptoms, she recommends they ask, "Am I already at risk of heart disease, blood clots or breast cancer that would make hormones a bad idea? Are my symptoms truly disrupting my life?"
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