Hormone replacement therapy in women treated for breast cancer.

We must still maintain the conventional advice that unopposed low dosages of oestrogen should not be used for the treatment of menopausal symptoms in women treated previously for breast cancer. There is, however, epidemiological, laboratory and clinical evidence that certain combinations of oestrogen and progestagen are more likely to be beneficial than harmful, in respect to the risk of reactivating subclinical residual breast cancer or causing progression in premalignant lesions. It is no longer justifiable to deprive a woman with a history of breast cancer treatment of a hormonal therapy capable of safely relieving symptoms which are making her life intolerable. A clinical trial of such treatment is reported.