Progestin adds to breast cancer risk

Hormone-replacement therapy for women during and after menopause can maintain bone strength, ease menopausal symptoms, and perhaps fend off heart disease. Two new studies indicate, however, that women whose therapy combines two common hormones, estrogen and progestin, are more likely to get breast cancer than women who receive estrogen alone.

Physicians routinely add progestin to estrogen prescriptions because it seems to limit the risk of uterine cancer.