BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Studies done both in the U.S. and UK showed women who take hormones after menopause -- hormone replacement therapy (HRT) -- will have a much higher risk of breast cancer and a slightly higher risk of ovarian cancer, according to media reports Thursday.

    From 2001 to 2004, breast cancer rates fell almost 9 percent in U.S. -- a dramatic decline, researchers reported in New England Journal of Medicine.

    Government statistics showed breast cancer rate plunged in 2003 as millions of women stopped taking hormones after a major study tied hormones use to higher heart, stroke and breast cancer risks; and in 2004 the rate leveled off. The numbers suggested the drop was due to not using the drug, not a fluke.

    A study in the Lancet medical journal found women who used HRT were 20 percent more likely to die from ovarian cancer than those who did not use HRT in UK.

    Dr. Valerie Beral and colleagues at the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit in Oxford said their findings suggested that 1,000 extra women in Britain had died from ovarian cancer between 1991 and 2005 because they were using hormone replacement therapy.

    They used data from the "Million Women Study," which looked at just under a million women, about half of whom were current of former HRT users.

    "The effect of HRT on ovarian cancer should not be viewed in isolation, especially since use of HRT also affects the risk of breast and endometrial cancer," they wrote.

    "The total incidence of these three cancers in the study population is 63 percent higher in current users of HRT than never users," they added, "Thus when ovarian, endometrial and breast cancer are taken together, use of HRT results in a material increase in these common cancers."

    But they stressed that young women who need the drug to relieve serious symptoms of menopause should still consider taking it because new, lower-dose formulations are available and doctors know to prescribe it for shorter periods of time.

    (Agencies)