Estrogen, Progesterone And Breast Health

[Sinisa]

What Effect do Hormones Have?

Molecular biologist, Dr. Ben Formby of Copenhagen, Denmark and Dr. T.S. Wiley at the University of California in Santa Barbara have researched two genes, BCL2 and P53, and their effect on female-specific cancers and prostate cancer.

Cells of breast, endometrium, ovary and prostate, were grown in the laboratory. Estrogen (estradiol) was added to the cells. This hormone turned on the BCL2 gene, causing the cells to grow rapidly and not die. Then, progesterone was added to the cell cultures. Cell reproduction stopped and the cells died on time (apoptosis).

This methodology was applied to all the above types of cancer. The BCL2 gene, therefore, stimulates the growth of these cells and the risk of cancer. On the other hand, the P53 gene promotes apoptosis or programmed cell death and thereby, reduces the risk of cancer. Estradiol upregulates or stimulates the production of the BCL2 gene, while progesterone upregulates or stimulates the production of the P53 gene.

Transdermal estradiol increased the cell proliferation rate by 230%, while transdermal progesterone decreased the cell proliferation rate by >400%. A combination estradiol/progesterone cream maintained the normal proliferation rate.

More on: Health is in our hands

[LianeMT]

I found it interesting. One the cancer researches (the more detailed information on the report and research can be found on seer.cancer.gov) found that the incidence of breast cancer, which had been slowly increasing about 2% a year in the 1990’s then slowly decreasing about 1% a year in the early 2000’s, suddenly dropped 7% in 2003. Looking at their data in subsets, the researchers found the greatest decrease in women ages 50–69, and that there was a 12% decrease in this age group of estrogen receptor–positive breast cancers.

The researchers examined all possible reasons and anomalies for this striking decline, including the fact that women did not get as many mammograms that year. In the end, they concluded that the cause of such a drop was that 50% of women on HRT went off of it in 2002 after learning of the Women’s Health Initiative study results. (The Women’s Health Initiative Study came out in 2002 with the news that Prempro — a combination of estrogen and progestins — increased the risk of breast cancer). The numbers actually fit quite well with the risk found in that study.

Since most breast cancer tumors take many years to manifest, one mechanism we could infer from the rather sudden drop in breast cancer incidence noted in the SEER data is that HRT may act like a Miracle-grow fertilizer on previously existing cancer cells. What we don’t know is what the future will bring — will the decline continue, plateau or bounce back up after time? Hopefully in our lifetime we will have really striking news, like the rates have decreased by 50%, or even more!


Liane Cordyceps