Hormones and Lung Cancer

[Judy M.]

This is just a general F. Y.I. post. Everyone else may have been aware of this, but I wasn't and it was a significant piece of information for me. While reading someone else's post the other day I ran across an answer by another member saying HRT could play a role in developing lung cancer. He gave a link in his post to do further reading on it and I did. I've tried to find that post again to thank him, but so far haven't found it. If you read this "Thank you, thank you, thank you." I was diagnosed with hormone positive breast cancer last year and lung cancer this year. Having had that happen, I began to notice that I wasn't as alone as I thought I was. I saw a number of other women, one I know in this forum, who had the same experience. Enough of them that I began to think this wasn't coincidental. I actually began to wonder if my breast cancer treatment had caused the lung cancer. I have adenocarcinoma NSCLC. My Oncologist's A. P. actually commented that both my beast and lung cancers were adenocarcinoma. A link has been hypothesized between lung cancer in women and HRT. I did take HRT for many years as I had an early menopause. The big eye opener for me was seeing that they have discovered that lung cancer has estrogen receptors and they're trying to see if aromatase inhibitors used to treat hormone positive breast cancer may also help to control adenocarcinoma in women. I won't go into any more details since I tend to be far too long winded. If any of you are taking or have taken HRT you can do a Google search for estrogen and lung cancer and find the studies. Hope this helps someone and that the person who wrote that original post sees this. I had not been taking the aromatase inhibitor I had been prescribed for my breast cancer because it was pumping one more drugs into my body and from research didn't think it improved the chances of my breast cancer not returning all that much. Obviously now a poor decision on my part. You can bet your bippy I'll be taking it from here on out. 

Judy M. 

[BridgetO]

Thanks, Judy,This is really interesting information. I too had estrogen receptor positive breast cancer (2008) prior to lung cancer. (also cervcal/endometrial in 2011).I also declined aromatase inhibitors. My oncologist offered them, but didn''t press me to take them. ey were quite new at the time and I had read a lot of info about side effects--especially concerning to me were foggy brain and bone/joint pain. Also, statisstically my risk of recurrence was low and mastectomy and other treatments for recurrence were available and likely to be effective. I still think this was a good decision for me, although after I read the stuff on lung cancer and estrogen, I may think it was less good. I'm NED on all 3 cancers at this time.

Thanks again for the provocative info. I missed the original post.

Bridget O

[Judy M.]

Bridget O

I knew there was another breast/lung cancer survivor on here. Glad it helped. Hope it helps others. I had made the same decision for the exact same reasons. No one ever mentioned to me that lung cancer has estrogen receptors. Am going to pass this on to Oncologist just in case next time I see him. I think a study of women who have had HRT and ended up with both types of cancer would be interesting. Plus, there's no history of breast cancer in my family and so far they've found no genetic markers for my lung cancer. Something to think about when considering HRT. 

Judy M.