Good Menopausal Hormone Use And Ovarian Cancer Risk Article Review Example

Ovarian Cancer and Hormone Replacement Therapy in the Million Women Study

Introduction
This study indicates that more than 55% of women who have used menopausal hormone developed ovarian cancer. The women who were lastly studied showed that the risk increased even much further by about 5%. This risk was found to be familiar to the Americans and Europeans who were prospectively studied. Moreover, according to the study, the risk declined long after the use has been stopped. However, after about ten years of stopping the use there was still some risk of developing serious endometrioid tumor (Auranen, Hietanen, Salmi, & Grenman, 2015)

Study design (case-control study)

The study design is case control study. It has both advantages and disadvantages. The study began with the disease (ovarian cancer) and worked backward to arrive at the results. The first step was to identify a group of patients who are suffering from ovarian cancer. While choosing this group, great care was taken to ensure that no mistake takes place. Although researchers are more likely to choose other patients who had suffered from other types of cancer, a lot of care should be taken to ensure that this does not occur.
The hypothesis of the study was that patients who were exposed to menopausal hormone treatment had a higher chance of developing ovarian cancer than the control group. After collecting the data, it was tested whether it fits well in the hypothesis and statistical test. Although it was difficult to collect information on past exposures, there were other ways such as collecting information on other causes of ovarian cancer that were applied during the study. In this study, it is very difficult to calculate the incidence of cancer since the study group had already suffered from cancer.

Strength and weakness of using case-control design

Strengths
One of the advantages of case-control study is that it can be done faster than cohort study method. Moreover, it is quick and is an inexpensive means of study. This study design was appropriate since it did not cost a lot of money to use as most study materials were already available. The answers were also arrived at very quickly it started from the disease perspective and not the non-infected group of people. This research started with people who are known to have the outcome rather than the general population; hence it was possible to enroll a large number of patients within a short period.

Weaknesses

The main disadvantage in case-control study is that it can be difficult to collect information on past case exposures since some of the individuals may consider it unethical. For rare exposures, it was a little bit inefficient because very few people have previously suffered from ovarian cancer as compared to the number in the population. This meant a lot of work while gathering data from hospital records to enable the study to run smoothly. Furthermore, some women were also not sure whether what they suffered was as result menopausal hormonal use.

Conclusion

This article is important since the study of ovarian cancer risk is something that has not been fully understood by many people. For instance, very few women believe that using hormonal therapy increases the risk of developing ovarian cancer. Moreover, it is detailed and it explains in a simple way how the study design was used in order to arrive at the results. Above all, the case-control study is much easier to understand.

References

Auranen, A., Hietanen, S., Salmi, T., & Grenman, S. (2015). Menopausal hormone use and ovarian cancer risk: individual participant meta-analysis of 52 epidemiological studies. The Lancet, 6736(34). doi:10.1111/j.1525-1438.2005.00131.x