News Release

Tamoxifen for prevention of breast cancer – encouraging results but risks still unclear

N.B. Please note that if you are outside North America the embargo date for all Lancet Press material is 0001 hours UK time Friday 13 September 2002

Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Lancet_DELETED

Early findings from a randomised trial investigating the effectiveness of tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer are reported in this week's issue of THE LANCET. Although tamoxifen reduced breast cancer incidence by a third compared with women given placebo, the authors of the study caution that it is still too early to fully assess the risk to benefit ratio of tamoxifen as a preventative strategy for breast cancer.

Tamoxifen is well known in its effect to decrease recurrence of (and death from) breast cancer; however, three clinical trials on the use of tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer have reported mixed results. The overall evidence supports a reduction in the risk of breast cancer, but whether this benefit outweighs the risks and side-effects associated with tamoxifen is unclear.

Jack Cuzick from Cancer Research UK, lead investigator of the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study (IBIS-I) and colleagues undertook a double-blind placebo-controlled randomised trial of tamoxifen, 20 mg/day for 5 years, in around 7000 women from the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand who were aged 35–70 years and who were at an increased risk of breast cancer (eg. They had a Family history of the disease or had a benign lesion associated with an increased risk of breast cancer).

The frequency of breast cancer was reduced by a third among Women given tamoxifen (69 breast cancers in 3578 women in the tamoxifen group and 101 breast cancers in 3566 in the placebo group). Endometrial cancer--considered to be increased by tamoxifen use--was doubled in the tamoxifen group (11 instances compared with 5 in the control group), but this increase was not statistically significant, and all cases were localised (stage 1) and curable by hysterectomy.

However, tamoxifen use was associated with more than a doubling in the risk of blood-clotting complications, especially after surgery or long periods of immobilisation. The investigators comment that the increased risk of blood-clotting complications could also contribute to the higher death rate from all causes in women given tamoxifen.

Jack Cuzick comments: "Although when used as adjuvant therapy for breast cancer, tamoxifen can clearly reduce the risk of recurrence and death, at present the overall risk to benefit ratio in the preventive setting is still unclear. Further long-term follow-up to study breast-cancer incidence and mortality, other causes of death, and side-effects in the current trials remains essential."

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Contact:
Dr Jack Cuzick, c/o Cancer Research UK,
61 Lincolns Inn Fields, WC2A 3PX;
T) 44-7-487-3768;
E) peter.flynn@cancer.org.uk

Dr Linda S Kinsinger, Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA;
T) 1 919 966 2949; E) lkins@med.unc.edu


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