In postmenopausal women treated for early-stage oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, neither vaginal oestrogen therapy nor menopausal hormone therapy is associated with an increased risk for recurrence or mortality, according to a study published online on 20 July in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Søren Cold, MD, from Odense University in Denmark, and colleagues used longitudinal data from a national cohort of postmenopausal women, diagnosed in 1997 to 2004 with early-stage invasive oestrogen receptor-positive nonmetastatic breast cancer.

The analysis compared mortality and the risk for recurrence in 8461 women (1957 used vaginal oestrogen therapy [VET] and 133 used menopausal hormone therapy [MHT] after diagnosis) over 9.8 years and 15.2 years, respectively.

The researchers found that the adjusted relative risk for recurrence was 1.08 (95% confidence interval, 0.89 to 1.32) for VET and 1.05 (95% confidence interval, 0.62 to 1.78) for MHT.