Results from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) clinical trials (CT) demonstrated no increase in the risk of lung cancer in postmenopausal women treated with hormone therapy. We conducted a joint analysis of the WHI observational study data and CT data to further explore the association between estrogen and estrogen-related reproductive factors and lung cancer risk.
Reproductive history, oral contraceptive (OC) use, and postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) was evaluated in 160,855 women with known HT exposures. Follow-up for lung cancer was through September 17, 2012; 2,467 incident lung cancer cases were ascertained, with median follow-up of 14 years.
For all lung cancers, women with previous use of estrogen plus progestin of < 5 years (HR=0.84; 95% CI 0.71-0.99) were at reduced risk. A limited number of reproductive factors demonstrated associations with risk. There was a trend towards decreased risk with increasing age at menopause (ptrend=0.04) and a trend towards increased risk with increasing number of live births (ptrend=0.03). Reduced risk of non-small cell lung cancer was associated with age 20-29 at first live birth. Risk estimates varied with smoking history, years of HT use and previous bilateral oophorectomy.
Indirect measures of estrogen exposure to lung tissue, as used in this study, provide only weak evidence for an association between reproductive history or HT use and risk of lung cancer. More detailed mechanistic studies and evaluation of risk factors in conjunction with ER expression in the lung should continue as a role for estrogen can't be ruled out and may hold potential for prevention and treatment strategies.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
1
3%
Other
5
13%
Unknown
16
40%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 40. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 27 March 2025.
All research outputs
#1,261,430
of 32,718,554 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Thoracic Oncology
#196
of 4,247 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#12,368
of 295,668 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Thoracic Oncology
#7
of 79 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 32,718,554 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,247 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 10.6. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 79 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.
