UK hormone trial "should continue"

The Medical Research Council (MRC) has decided that a trial to determine thelong-term effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on women's health can continue.

Earlier this month a similar US-based trial of HRT was halted early because of increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease and stroke.

The MRC's trial steering committee for the WISDOM (Women's International Study of Long Duration Oestrogen after Menopause) met last week to discuss the implications of the US results. The MRC's governing body will discuss the committee's recommendation this week and will make the final decision on the future of the trial.

The steering committee says that, providing the women are fully informed of all the known risks and benefits of HRT, including the US results, the trial should continue. It also says there are many unanswered questions about the long-term effects of HRT, including its relationship with dementia, cognitive decline and arthritis.

The MRC believes that the breast cancer risk highlighted by the US study remains a relatively small one, and there are still questions over HRT's effects on heart disease, stroke, colorectal and other cancers.

Professor Rory Collins, chair of the trial steering committee, said he would brief the MRC's council on Wednesday (24/07/02) and that in the meantime GPs and patients already involved in the trial had been sent letters advising them of the recommendation to continue and the reasons why.

He said, "Until revised information has been prepared, and the MRC council has made a decision, further women will not be recruited in the trial. But I hope very much that the women currently in the trial will wish to stay in it and that many more women will join in the future."

The £20 million WISDOM trial began recruiting volunteers in 1999 and is due to run until 2012. It aims to discover whether HRT, both oestrogen alone and combined with progestogen, increases or lowers the chances of developing diseases and conditions such as cancer, heart attacks, osteoporosis and dementia. The study is also assessing the impact of HRT on quality of life.

WISDOM is a major research project, which will eventually involve more than 16,000 post-menopausal women in the UK and 6,000 from Australia and New Zealand. To date 5,000 women have been recruited in the UK.

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