More evidence that links cancers to hormone therapy

A Danish study involving 900,000 women aged 50 to 79 found that hormone-replacement therapy during menopause results in an increased risk of deadly ovarian cancer.  Similar links had previously been identified between hormone therapy and both breast cancer and ovarian cancer, as well as strokes and other problems, resulting in a dramatic diminution in the prescription of estrogen to minimize  symptoms of menopause.  Prescriptions of Wyeth's Prempro have fallen by about 50 percent since the first study was published in 2001.    The cancer risk is thought to last for about two years after estrogen therapy ends.  Ovarian cancer kills about 15,000 American women each year.  Over the eight years of the Danish study, current hormone use conferred a 38 percent higher risk of contracting the disease.