Study: Hormone therapy for breast cancer protects against dementia

A new study has found a link between hormone replacement therapy used to treat breast cancer and a 7% lower risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's later in life.

The study was conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, and researchers noted that this protective effect of hormone therapy declines with age.

According to "Medical Express", about two-thirds of breast cancer patients have tumors that are hormone receptor positive, meaning they grow in response to estrogen or progesterone.

For these patients, hormone therapy (HMT) can slow tumor growth by preventing hormones from binding to these receptors.

This hormone therapy is also linked to increased survival rates, as previous research has shown.

In the new study, researchers used data from more than 18,000 breast cancer patients, 66% of whom received hormone therapy.

The researchers found that the protective effect of hormone therapy was most evident in women aged 65 to 69, and that it decreased with age, declining after 80.