To Treat or Not to Treat: The Use of Hormone Replacement Therapy in Patients With Ovarian Cancer

Editorial: open access

.... Eeles et al¹⁶ are to be congratulated for recognizing the importance of this study and observing the accrued cohort for nearly two decades. These findings, unlikely to be repeated, support the hypothesis that HRT improves outcomes in patients with ovarian cancer by reducing ovarian cancer relapse, ovarian cancer-specific death, and other causes of death. In the Women's Health Initiative study, estrogen did not significantly affect all-cause mortality, making the decrease in mortality in the patients studied here of interest.¹⁰

Where do we stand in 2015? To treat or not to treat? Although there are many unanswered questions (eg, the mechanisms of how estrogen improves OS, the optimal duration of therapy), the data from Eeles et al¹⁶ combined with that of previous studies allow oncologists to feel comfortable offering patients HRT after the treatment of EOC to reduce vasomotor and other postmenopausal symptoms and should, therefore, improve the quality of life for patients with epithelial ovarian cancer
  See accompanying article doi:10.1200/JCO.2015.60.9719

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