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Menopausal vasomotor symptoms and incident breast cancer risk in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation

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Abstract

Purpose

Two case–control studies reported a 50 % decreased breast cancer risk among women who experienced menopausal vasomotor symptoms (VMS), but one cohort study found no association. VMS may be triggered by declining estrogen levels during menopause, whereas elevated estrogen levels have been associated with increased breast cancer risk. VMS may thus be indicative of lower susceptibility to breast cancer.

Methods

We evaluated this relationship in the longitudinal Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), using discrete survival analysis of approximately annual data on VMS and self-reported breast cancer occurrences for up to 13 years of follow-up in 3,098 women who were pre- or early perimenopausal at enrollment.

Results

Over an average 11.4 years of follow-up, 129 incident breast cancer cases were self-reported, and approximately 50 % of participants experienced VMS. Symptomatic women had a reduced risk of breast cancer compared to non-symptomatic women (adjusted HR 0.63, 95 % CI 0.39, 1.00). The association was stronger in the subgroup of women who fully transitioned to postmenopause during follow-up (n = 67 cases, adjusted HR 0.45, 95 % CI 0.26, 0.77).

Conclusion

VMS appeared to be a marker of reduced breast cancer risk. Future research is needed to understand the biology underlying this relationship.

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Financial support

The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) has grant support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), DHHS, through the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), and the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) (Grants U01NR004061; U01AG012505, U01AG012535, U01AG012531, U01AG012539, U01AG012546, U01AG012553, U01AG012554, U01AG012495). The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIA, NINR, ORWH, or the NIH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 411 Arnold House, 715 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Vicki Hart, Susan R. Sturgeon, Nicholas Reich & Katherine W. Reeves

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Lynnette Leidy Sievert

  3. Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    Sybil L. Crawford

  4. Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California School of Medicine, Davis, CA, USA

    Ellen B. Gold

  5. Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Nancy E. Avis

Authors
  1. Vicki Hart
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  2. Susan R. Sturgeon
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  3. Nicholas Reich
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  4. Lynnette Leidy Sievert
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  5. Sybil L. Crawford
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  6. Ellen B. Gold
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  7. Nancy E. Avis
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  8. Katherine W. Reeves
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katherine W. Reeves.

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Hart, V., Sturgeon, S.R., Reich, N. et al. Menopausal vasomotor symptoms and incident breast cancer risk in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation. Cancer Causes Control 27, 1333–1340 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-016-0811-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-016-0811-9

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