From a report from WebMD on CBS News channel:

In the study of more than 2,400 postmenopausal women with early breast cancer, those who cut down on fats in their diet were about one-fifth less likely to either suffer a recurrence or die over the next six to seven years, compared with those who continued to eat their usual foods, according to the updated report.

Women whose tumors were not fueled by hormones — about 30 percent of women with breast cancer — benefited most.

Their chance of recurrence was cut by more than half, and their risk of dying was slashed by two-thirds, says researcher Rowan T. Chlebowski, M.D., a medical oncologist at the Los Angeles Biomedical Institute at the Harbor-University of California-Los Angeles Medical Center in Torrance, Calif.

("That's as good or better than any treatment intervention we have for this type of disease," which is notoriously difficult to treat, says C. Kent Osborne, M.D., a breast cancer specialist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who was not involved with the work.

In contrast, there was little benefit for women with hormone-receptor-positive tumors. The growth of those breast cancers is fueled by hormones; it's the most common type of the disease.

And on the reduced rates of cancer since women stopped using HRT on the same site:

In a startling turnaround, breast cancer rates in the United States dropped dramatically in 2003, and experts said they believe it is because many women stopped taking hormone pills.

The 7.2 percent decline came a year after a big federal study linked menopause hormones to a higher risk of breast cancer, heart disease and other problems. Within months, millions of women stopped taking the pills.

A new analysis of federal cancer statistics, presented by researchers from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Thursday at a breast cancer conference in Texas, revealed the drop in tumors.

Why do doctors think the 2003 drop is largely due to hormones?

Cases declined most among women 50 and older, with tumors whose growth is fueled by estrogen — the age group and type of cancer most affected by hormone use. Around 2003, researchers said, these women heeded warnings and stopped using HRT — hormone replacement therapy.

But Dr. Freya Schnabel of New York Columbia Presbyterian says stopping hormone therapy may be just one reason for the dramatic decrease in breast cancer that year, reports CBS News correspondent Sharon Alfonsi. Better mammograms could play a part, too.

"If one thing is true," Schnabel tells Alfonsi, "it's that breast cancer is just not that simple."

"It's very difficult to wrap your arms around this subject of the various pros and cons of hormone replacement therapy," adds CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook.

My step mother was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time when I was a teenager, hers was hormone fuelled and she was taking hormones because of an earlier radical hysterectomy. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer she was immediately taken off the hormones and went through what was, essenstially, instant and total menopause (tough on us, tougher on her).

She has since had another hormone based breast cancer start (not a recurrence of the original cancer) and in the 15 years since that one was fought off, has recently had it recur.

I have to wonder how much of that was due to the high hormone level she was given after the initial hysterectomy.

(And just to let you know, she has managed to begin beating this one too, the cancer cells are reducing thanks to Tamoxifen and she is doing very well.--She is the toughest person I know and I admire her grit deeply )

i admire your step mothers fighting spirit sbk. may she beat this again and live life a long healthy life.

i am not taking hrt and nor do i plan to for the minor symptoms i have experienced with menopause. but that information above is VERY interesting. i will certainly be taking that advice.