Estrogen replacement therapy in the patient treated for endometrial cancer

Adenocarcinoma of the endometrium is considered to be an estrogen-dependent neoplasia and as such, hormone replacement therapy is said to be contraindicated. The authors are unaware of any data to substantiate that statement. Patients, who had completed their therapy for stage I carcinoma of the endometrium, were placed on estrogen hormone replacement therapy in a nonrandomized fashion. Between 1975 and 1980, 221 patients with stage I adenocarcinoma of the endometrium were managed at the Duke University Medical Center. Forty-seven patients received estrogen after their cancer therapy, whereas 174 patients did not. Risk factors for recurrence were similar between the two groups. After controlling for these known risk factors, the estimated distributions of time to recurrence for the two groups were significantly different (P less than .05), with the estrogen group experiencing longer disease-free survival. The history of endometrial cancer does not appear to be a contraindication to hormone replacement therapy in patients with stage I disease.