Table 1.

Hormone Therapy and Common Cancers: Concepts in 2002
1	Estrogen plus progestin increases breast cancer
	Estrogen alone increases breast cancer but may require longer duration exposure
	In addition, the predominance of observation studies suggested that the breast cancer risk would be greater in lean hormone therapy users. Also the breast cancers associated with hormone therapy use would commonly be hormone receptor positive, be diagnosed at lower stage, and have favorable prognosis.
2	Hormone therapy decreases colorectal cancer (most reports with estrogen alone)
3	No influence of hormone therapy on lung cancer
4	Estrogen alone increases endometrial cancer incidence
	Estrogen plus progestin does not increase endometrial cancer incidence
Hormone Therapy and Common Cancers: Current Concepts
1	Estrogen plus progestin increases breast cancers. Effects may be greater in women initiating therapy closer to menopause
	Estrogen plus progestin interferes with breast cancer mammographic detection resulting in cancers diagnosed at more advanced stage.
	Estrogen plus progestin broadly increases breast cancers across subtypes with influence not limited to estrogen receptor positive cancers.
	Estrogen plus progestin increases deaths from breast cancer
	Estrogen alone reduces breast cancer incidence and reduces deaths from breast cancer
2	Estrogen plus progestin reduces colorectal cancer incidence. However, the cancers are diagnosed at higher stage. Estrogen plus progestin does not reduce colorectal cancer mortality. The lack of influence on colorectal cancer mortality from this rapidly fatal disease strongly suggest delay in diagnosis rather than a clinically meaningful reduction in incidence from estrogen plus progestin use.
	Estrogen alone does not influence colorectal cancer incidence or colorectal cancer mortality.
3	Estrogen plus progestin increases lung cancer mortality
	Estrogen alone doesn't influence lung cancer incidence or mortality
4	Estrogen alone increases endometrial cancer incidence
	Estrogen plus progestin reduces endometrial cancer incidence