Are hormones and cancer linked?

• Position: Colonoscopy - Brief Article

"Get a routine colonoscopy whether or not you are taking hormone therapy after menopause." That is the primary message women should take away from research by the Women's Health Initiative on the relationship of estrogen and progestin replacement and colon cancer, states study co-author Jean WactawskiWende of the University at Buffalo (N.Y.).

Results indicate that, while there were fewer colon cancers among women in the treatment group than among those taking a placebo, colon cancers that did develop in the treatment group were more advanced when diagnosed, suggesting a poorer outcome.

"The results of the current study that show more advanced cancers in the treatment group are some what puzzling," says WactawskiWende, assistant professor of social and preventive medicine and gynecology and obstetrics. "We think it's possible that women receiving estrogen and progestin may have attributed colon cancer symptoms, such as constipation, diarrhea, cramping, or stomach pain, to the hormone treatment, and...