Little Rock. Ark. ? Wyeth won the first case in a series of lawsuits involving its hormone replacement drugs Friday when a federal jury rejected a woman’s claim the drugs caused her breast cancer.

A jury ruled against Linda Reeves, 67, in her suit against the New Jersey drugmaker, the first of about 4,500 against Wyeth involving hormone drugs Premarin and Prempro. During the four-week trial, Reeves acknowledged not reading information supplied with the drug and said she left it up to her doctor to decide whether it was appropriate to treat symptoms of menopause.

Lyn Pruitt, an attorney for Wyeth, said the lawsuit was an “excellent” sign of how upcoming legal battles about the drugs would fare. A lawyer for Reeves, of Benton, disputed that notion.

“Hundreds of thousands of doctors across the country still prescribe these products because they also believe they are excellent products with great benefits,” Pruitt said after the verdict. “We intend to defend these products vigorously in every case.”

The lawsuit said Wyeth failed to act responsibly. Wyeth lawyers told jurors that the benefits of Prempro and a similar drug, Premarin, outweighed the risks and said the drug company had informed Reeves and her doctor of the risks associated with the drugs.

Reeves took one or the other of the drugs before being diagnosed in 2000 with a cancerous tumor in her right breast. She initially took Premarin, a form of estrogen, and her doctor soon added progestin to her daily regimen. She switched in 1996 to Prempro, which for the first time combined Premarin and progestin in one pill.

After her cancer diagnosis, Reeves had a mastectomy and chemotherapy. She has been cancer-free since.

When the verdict was read, Reeves and one of her daughters immediately left the courtroom in tears. Zoe Littlepage, an attorney for Reeves, said outside the courtroom that she was disappointed with the ruling and didn’t know why the jury ruled against Reeves.

“It’s a very sad day for the Reeves family. They deserved better than this. They deserved justice from this company,” Littlepage said.

Littlepage, who is representing clients in several other lawsuits against Wyeth set to go to trial, said she didn’t think the Reeves case would have an effect on the other lawsuits.

The drugs are used to treat women going through menopause.