Women who took the drug tamoxifen for 10 years rather than the usual five halved their risk of dying from the disease, researchers have found. Adding an extra five years of treatment cut the risk of dying by a further 25 percent, doctors say.
Tamoxifen is a key cause of the near 50 percent fall in death rates in the last 30 years. There are 50 000 women taking the drug in Britain and one million using it worldwide.
It works by preventing oestrogen being taken up by breast cells where it can be used to fuel cancer. It is long since out of patent, and therefore inexpensive , and is used for treating oestrogen-positive breast cancer, which accounts for three-quarters of all cases.
But until recently it had been thought that five years of treatment with the drug was enough and longer treatment might carry extra risks.
Now a study of 7 000 women led by the University of Birmingham has confirmed that those who took tamoxifen for a decade had 23 percent fewer recurrences of their cancer and a 25 percent lower risk of dying than those who stopped treatment after five years.
The “aTTom” study follows publication of the Atlas trial six months ago by the University of Oxford involving over 12 000 women which reached similar conclusions. Taken together the results from the two studies are likely to change medical practice.
Like all drugs, tamoxifen has side effects. In this study, funded by Cancer Research UK, researchers found an increase in endometrial cancer. But they estimated that for every endometrial cancer death caused by tamoxifen the drug would prevent 30 breast cancer deaths.
Professor Richard Gray from the University of Oxford, who presented the results yesterday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, said: “This study establishes that the benefits of taking it [tamoxifen] for longer greatly outweigh the risks.” - The Independent
No comments:
Post a Comment