Prempro

Both plaintiffs charge that that combination estrogen/progesterone replacement drugs caused their breast cancer.

"Our position is clear," said Les Weisbrod, a law partner with Morgan & Weisbrod, which is representing one of the plaintiffs.

"For a long time, the makers twisted the science and suppressed the evidence of the true extent of the risk of these drugs while vastly overplaying the benefits," he said.

Rush says she began taking the drugs in 1989 and was diagnosed with breast cancer a year later.

The risks of HRT first came to light in 2002 when the National Institutes of Health released the results of a massive study of 16,608 women that showed a 26-percent increased risk of breast cancer, a 22-percent greater risk of heart disease, a 29-percent higher risk of heart attack and a 41-percent increased risk of stroke in patients on HRT, compared to a control group.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc.

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