As more women turn to hormones to relieve menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats, some physicians and scientists say not enough attention is being paid to the small increase in breast cancer risk associated with certain systemic therapies.

The link between breast cancer and hormone therapy has been the subject of heated debate for decades. In 2002, panic ensued after a large study, called the Women’s Health Initiative, found that older women taking a combination hormone pill were developing breast cancer at higher rates. (There was no risk with estrogen-only treatment, used only after a hysterectomy.) Prescriptions for combination hormone therapy plummeted.

But in recent years, the pendulum has swung in the other direction.…