Two Doctors Evaluate Risk of Breast Cancer For Women Using Estrogen-Containing Drugs

Two doctors affiliated with the Harvard School of Public Health will publish within the next few months a study probing a possible link between estrogens and breast cancer in women, one of the doctors involved in the study said yesterday.

Dr. Brian MacMahon said the report will evaluate the risk of breast cancer for women taking oral contraceptives containing estrogen, as well as for menopausal women taking pure estrogen to relieve uterine pain.

"We're not yet sure what our conclusions will be, but we're almost there--the report should appear within the next two months," MacMahon said.

Another doctor involved in the project, Dr. Robert Hoover of the National Cancer Institute, last week cited the study in testimony before a U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health which is investigating the estrogen risk.

Although Hoover could not give results of the unfinished study, MacMahon said yesterday that the report may add to recently published evidence linking estrogens and uterine cancer.

Tighter Restrictions

This evidence, published by doctors from the University of Seattle and the Kaiser Institute in Los Angeles this fall, has led federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials to push for tighter restrictions on drugs containing estrogen.

MacMahon refused to comment on the FDA action. "That's not my business," he said. Hoover, who was at a conference in Florida yesterday, could not be reached for comment.

The Harvard study deals specifically with the effects of estrogen on women in the Greater Boston area who have been treated with estrogen products by an area doctor over the past 15 years, MacMahon said.

Patients Cooperate

The doctor, whose name MacMahon did not disclose, has obtained cooperation in the study from patients treated with estrogens after their ovaries were removed and after menopause, as well as women on the pill, MacMahon said.

"The name of the doctor will come out when the report is published," MacMahon said. "But as of now he may not want his name revealed since he is still treating these patients," he added.

"We're not just concerned with estrogen and breast cancer or estrogen and uterine cancer--we're concerned with estrogen and mortality," MacMahon said.

Breast cancer research has been ongoing at the Harvard School of Public Health since 1958, MacMahon said.