Benefits of raloxifene in breast cancer patients questioned

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Friday, April 05, 2002 9:31 PM

Benefits of raloxifene in breast cancer

patients questioned

 

 

eMedicine News-

 

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Medical and Science News

Benefits of raloxifene in breast cancer patients questioned

LONDON

By Dr Michelle Roberts

 

Research in mice suggests that taking raloxifene after five years of

tamoxifen therapy may not prevent breast cancer recurrence and might even

increase the risk of endometrial cancer.

Canadian scientists at Northwestern University now believe that

postmenopausal women completing five years of tamoxifen therapy may not

benefit from raloxifene treatment.

Tamoxifen - a selective oestrogen receptor modulator (SERM) - reduces the

risk of breast cancer recurrence in some women with early-stage breast

cancer. However, research suggests that this protective benefit is lost

after five years and is outweighed by an increased risk of endometrial

cancer.

This led scientists to try following a five-year course of tamoxifen with

another SERM called raloxifene, which, according to a large randomised

clinical trial, might reduce breast cancer risk without increasing the

likelihood of endometrial cancer.

Dr Ruth O'Regan and colleagues found raloxifene to be less effective than

tamoxifen in blocking the stimulatory effects of low-dose oestrogen on the

growth of tamoxifen-naive breast and endometrial tumours in mice. Both

drugs

had a similar stimulatory effect on the growth of breast and endometrial

cancers in mice that had been exposed to tamoxifen for at least five

years.

The team concluded that treatment with raloxifene after five years of

tamoxifen may not further decrease breast cancer recurrence and might

increase the incidence of endometrial cancer.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr Michael Sporn from Dartmouth Medical

School, the US, said the findings " do not support an optimistic future for

the use of raloxifene as a replacement for tamoxifen after five years of

adjuvant therapy " .

However, he said that the current study did not address whether raloxifene

might be useful in preventing the development of a second primary breast

cancer or primary endometrial cancer. He said the ongoing Study of

Tamoxifen

and Raloxifene, which will be conducted by more than 400 centres across

the

US, Canada and Puerto Rico, would test the efficacy of the two drugs in

preventing primary breast and endometrial tumours.

 

Source: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, February 20, 2002

© Health Media Ltd 2002

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2002 eMedicine. com, Inc.

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