The Million Women Study
| Million Women Study | |
|---|---|
| Mission statement | A confidential national study of women's health |
| Type of project | Medical research |
| Founder | Valerie Beral |
| Funding |
Medical Research Council Cancer Research UK National Health Service |
| Website | www |
The Million Women Study is a study of women’s health analysing data from more than one million women aged 50 and over, led by Dame Valerie Beral and a team of researchers at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford. It is a collaborative project between Cancer Research UK and the National Health Service (NHS), with additional funding from the Medical Research Council (UK).
One key focus of the study relates to the effects of hormone replacement therapy use on women's health. The study has confirmed the findings in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) that women currently using HRT are more likely to develop breast cancer than those who are not using HRT.
Results from the Million Women Study, together with those of the WHI trial from the USA, have influenced national policy, including recent recommendations on the prescribing and use of hormone replacement therapy from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and from the Commission on Human Medicines.
The Million Women Study is a multi-centre, population-based prospective cohort study of women aged 50 and over invited to routine breast cancer screening in the UK. Between 1996 and 2001, women were invited to join the Million Women Study when they received their invitation to attend breast screening at one of 66 participating NHS Breast Screening Centres in the UK. At these centres, women received a study questionnaire with their invitation, which they were asked to complete and return at the time of screening. Around 70% of those attending the programme returned questionnaires and agreed to take part in the study, over 1 in 4 women in the UK in the target age group. The Million Women Study is the largest study of its kind in the world.
The Million Women Study was set up with the aim of recruiting 1,000,000 women in the UK into a cohort study, to provide answers to the following questions:
Follow-up of over 1 million women in the Million Women Study confirmed findings from other recent studies that women currently using HRT are more likely to develop breast cancer than those who are not using HRT. Past users are not at increased risk. The study was able to show that this effect is substantially greater for combined (estrogen-progestogen) HRT than for estrogen-only HRT; and that the effects were similar for all specific types and doses of estrogen and progestogen, for oral, transdermal and implanted HRT, and for continuous and sequential patterns of use. Current users of estrogen-progestogen HRT were at 2 fold increased risk of developing breast cancer, and current users of estrogen-only HRT at 1.3 fold risk. Use of HRT by women aged 50–64 in the UK in the decade from 1993-2003 resulted in an estimated 20,000 extra breast cancers. The study's conclusion that HRT increases the risk of breast cancer was criticized in a 2012 paper in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care. The paper's authors, led by Samuel Shapiro of the University of Cape Town, stated that the study did not establish a causal relationship between HRT and breast cancer.
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