A further warning against the cosmetic use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) comes with research suggesting that oestrogen is a factor in promoting ovarian cancer.

One in 48 women is affected by ovarian cancer – one of most difficult cancers to treat. It offers no symptoms and cannot be found by scans or blood tests until it is advanced.

The vast majority of women discover the illness in their 60s. In 80 per cent of cases the disease has usually spread around the abdomen and requires advanced surgery and chemotherapy. Unlike other cancers, it does not spread through the bloodstream.

While HRT artificially boosts oestrogen in the bodies of menopausal woman, a new study suggests that antioestrogen drugs – the opposite of HRT – can prolong life in some ovarian cancer sufferers.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh have found that a new drug, Letrozole, can block the growth and spread of oestrogen-sensitive ovarian cancer. Menopausal women who have undiagnosed ovarian cancer and are using HRT could be promoting the disease.

Three major studies have highlighted increased risks, including a report in The Lancet in May from the British Million Women Study. This revealed that HRT has resulted in 1,300 additional ovarian cancers and 1,000 additional deaths from the malignancy. However, it is believed that thousands of women who would benefit from HRT are not getting it as a result of flawed studies.

Today’s research, published in Clinical Cancer Research, raises the possibility that Letrozole might one day be used for ovarian cancer treatment the way Herceptin is for breast cancer.

Antioestrogen drugs have been used for 20 years in the treatment of breast cancer but John Smyth, Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Edinburgh, and his colleague Simon Langdon, senior lecturer in cancer research, have produced the first evidence that such therapy works for some ovarian cancers.

Professor Smyth said: “This study suggests that the addition of hormone therapy to our treatment strategy could extend and improve the lives of women with cancer.”

He added: “We don’t think that oestrogen is the cause of ovarian cancer but if you’ve got it and the cause isn’t known, then oestrogen is a bad thing because itacts as a growth promoter.” He said that he would recommend HRT only for women with severe menopausal symptoms, and it should not be used for more than five years.

The research programme, funded by Cancer Research UK, selected 44 women who had relapsed oestrogen sensitive cancers which might respond to treatment. One quarter of the women showed no tumour growth after six months of antioestrogen therapy, and 33 per cent showed a positive response that delayed the use of chemotherapy.

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