• 8 more will have invasive breast cancer

• 7 more will have a heart attack

• 8 more will have a stroke

• 18 more will have blood clots,

including 8 with blood clots in the

lungs,

than will a similar group of 10,000

women not taking these hormones.

This is a relatively small annual

increase in risk for an individual

woman. Individual women who have

participated in the trial and women in

the population who have been on

estrogen and progestin should not be

unduly alarmed. However, even small

individual risks over time, and on a

population-wide basis, add up to tens

of thousands of these serious adverse

health events,” explained Rossouw.

The National Cancer Institute

(NCI) reemphasized the recommenda-

tion that all women in their forties and

older get screened for breast cancer

with mammography every 1 to 2 years.

“Women in the WHI, women tak-

ing hormones for any reason, and any

woman over 40 should remain com-

mitted to their regular program of

breast cancer screening to allow the

earliest possible detection of breast

cancer,” said Leslie Ford, MD, associate

director for clinical research in NCI’s

Division of Cancer Prevention.

“The reduction in colorectal cancer

risk in the WHI is intriguing, but the

balance of harm versus benefit does

not justify any woman beginning or

continuing to take estrogen plus prog-

estin for this purpose. NCI has a num-

ber of clinical trials under way investi-

gating new methods to detect and pre-

vent both colorectal cancer and breast

cancer that will provide critical infor-

mation to help women make impor-

tant health decisions,” added Ford.

The WHI involves over 161,000

women who are participating in a set

of clinical trials or an observational

study. The clinical trials are designed

to test promising but unproven pre-

ventive measures for heart disease,

breast and colorectal cancer and osteo-

porosis. In addition to the trials of

estrogen alone and estrogen plus prog-

estin, other trials are studying a low-fat

eating pattern and calcium/Vitamin D

supplementation. WHI is sponsored

by NHLBI in collaboration with four

other components of the NIH—the

National Cancer Institute, the National

Institute of Arthritis and Muscu-

loskeletal and Skin Diseases, the

National Institute on Aging, and the

Office of Research on Women’s Health.

Note: Wyeth-Ayerst Research pro-

vided the medication (active hor-

mones and placebo) for the estrogen

plus progestin study.

To follow these developments on an

ongoing basis, visit and bookmark the

Web site: www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/

hrtupd/index.htm.

302 AWHONN Lifelines Volume 6 Issue 4

Researchers have discovered that eye drops used

to treat elevated pressure inside the eye can be

effective in delaying the onset of glaucoma. These

results mean that treating people at higher risk for

developing glaucoma may delay—and possibly

prevent—the disease. These findings are reported

in the June 2002 issue of Archives of

Ophthalmology. The findings are significant

because as the American population continues to

age, the incidence of glaucoma is expected to

increase.

Scientists found that pressure-lowering eye

drops reduced by more than 50 percent the devel-

opment of primary open-angle glaucoma,

the most common form of

glaucoma and one of

the nation’s

leading

causes of vision loss. Researchers noted that 4.4

percent of the study participants who received the

eye drops developed glaucoma within five years. By

comparison, 9.5 percent of the study participants

who did not receive the eye drops developed glau-

coma. Additionally, several significant risk factors

were found to be associated with the development

of glaucoma in study participants. These included

personal risk factors, such as older age and African

descent, as well as ocular risk factors, such as high-

er eye pressure, certain characteristics in the anato-

my of the optic nerve and thinness of the cornea.

The study—called the Ocular Hypertension

Treatment Study—examined 1,636 people 40 to 80

years of age who had elevated eye pressure but no

signs of glaucoma. Half were assigned daily eye

drops, and the other half were assigned to observa-

tion (no medication). In the medication group,

treatment reduced eye pressure by approximately

20 percent. Researchers prescribed commercially

available eye drops, either singly or in combina-

tion, to reduce eye pressure.

Eye Drops Delay Glaucoma Onset