In the Superior Court of Pennsylvania - How Appealing

The results of the WHI received widespread attention from the popular
media. By way of example, the National Cancer Institute of the NIH (“NCI”)
reported the groundbreaking nature of the WHI study’s results as follows:
Hormone therapy, either estrogen alone or estrogen combined with
progestin, has been the subject of numerous studies over the past two
decades. Some of the findings have suggested benefits to hormone use;
others have suggested risks.
Recently, however, one definitive study has convinced experts that the
risks of estrogen plus progestin outweigh the benefits. This large
randomized trial, conducted as part of the Women’s Health Initiative
(WHI) at the National Institutes of Health, was stopped early when it
became clear that estrogen plus progestin increased the risk of heart
disease, blood clots in the legs and lungs, and breast cancer.
See Summary of the Evidence of the Risks and Benefits of Postmenopausal Use of
Hormones, BenchMarks (Aug. 20, 2002) (available online at: http://www.cancer.gov/
newscenter/archive/benchmarks-vol2-issue8/page2). The NCI explained that “[t]he
highest level of evidence for a causal association between hormone exposure and
disease or condition is achieved with a randomized, controlled, blinded, clinical
trial,” which is the very type of study that the WHI represented. Id.; see also
R.1706a–07a (“The WHI proved definitively what 30 earlier studies could not: HRT
does indeed raise the risk of developing invasive breast cancer.”).
C. The relevant facts and procedural history of these consolidated
cases
Plaintiffs claim that E+P caused their breast cancer. While it is true that
each plaintiff commenced her suit more than two years after receiving her breast
cancer diagnosis, each sued within two years of the publication of the WHI study’s
results on July 9, 2002. Plaintiffs thus sued within two years from the date on
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