Hormone replacement therapy and lung cancer risk in Chinese

BACKGROUND: The association between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and a reduced lung cancer risk has been reported in previous studies. There is a high female to male ratio in Chinese lung cancer patients, and female patients have different clinicopathological characteristics compared with Western patient populations. The authors investigated whether HRT may reduce lung cancer risk in Taiwan. METHODS: The authors used a case-control study design to investigate 826 women with lung cancer and 531 healthy controls. Personal interviews based on a structured questionnaire were performed to collect information on HRT use of at least 3 months, age, ethnicity, active and passive smoking, exposure to air pollution, cooking or incense fumes, body mass index (BMI), menopause, and family history of cancers. RESULTS: HRT use was associated with reduced lung cancer risk with a multivariate, adjusted odds ratio of 0.70 (95% CI, 0.53-0.94; P = .019). HRT use was associated with reduced odds ratio of lung cancer in all subset analyses stratified by histology, active and passive cigarette smoking, BMI, history of incense burning, cooking, and motorcycle riding, as well as family history of certain cancers. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirmed that HRT is associated with a reduced lung cancer risk. The results appeared to be applicable to Chinese female population groups.