Currently browsing tag

risk

Hormone drugs boost ovarian cancer risk by 40%

Menopausal women who take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) boost the risk of ovarian cancer by 40 percent, even if they take the treatment only for a few years, a study said Friday. The probe marks the widest-ever analysis of the risk of ovarian cancer from HRT, a treatment whose use declined when its safety was questioned a dozen years ago. Researchers publishing in The Lancet carried out an overview of 52 published studies, covering nearly 21,500 women in North America, Europe and Australia who had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. “For women who take HRT for five years from around age 50, there will be about one extra ovarian cancer for every 1,000 users, and one extra ovarian cancer death for every 1,700 users,” said Richard Peto, a University of Oxford professor who co-authored the study.

Two die of bird flu in China

Two people have died of the H7N9 strain of avian flu in China's eastern province of Fujian, state media said Saturday, quoting local health officials. Fujian has confirmed 15 cases since the start of 2015, Xinhua news agency reported. Another human infection was reported in the adjacent province of Jiangxi on Friday, Xinhua said, while both the municipality of Shanghai and neighbouring Zhejiang province have reported cases “this winter”. Cases of the virus accelerated in China in 2014, with statistics compiled by health authorities in Beijing showing 310 cases were diagnosed on the mainland from January until December 10, including 132 deaths.