Hormone therapy poses no glioma risk

Users of hormone therapy do not appear to be at increased risk of glioma, according to a study.

Researchers used data from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening trial and looked at 75,335 women between 50 and 78 years of age. They applied Cox proportional hazard models to estimate the relationship between hormone therapy use and glioma risk and adjusted for various potential confounders.

Over a median follow-up of 11.82 years, 101 participants received a diagnosis of glioma. Compared with nonuse, hormone therapy use showed no significant association with glioma (hazard ratio [HR], 1.16, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.75–1.81). Similar results were obtained in an analysis that factored in hormone therapy status or duration of use.

Notably, in subgroup analyses defined by education, marital status, body mass index, oral contraceptive, hysterectomy, ovariectomy, ever been pregnant, age at menarche, and age at menopause, a significant positive association between hormone therapy use and glioma risk was observed solely among participants who were at least college-educated (HR, 3.00, 95 percent CI, 1.02–8.84). However, the interaction effect for education was not significant (p=0.056).

Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumours in adults, and more studies are needed to confirm the study findings, according to the researchers.