Home | Cancer | Breast-cancer
Tamoxifen -- the only drug approved by FDA for reducing the risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women -- is effective only in extending life expectancy in women with a 3% or higher five-year risk of developing breast cancer, according to a study published in the Sept. 1 edition of the journal Cancer, Reuters reports (Reuters, 7/23). FDA in 1998 approved tamoxifen to reduce breast cancer risk after a study showed it decreased the likelihood of women developing the disease by 50% (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/18). The drug -- which can have side effects including uterine cancer in women who have not had hysterectomies and blood clots -- was sold under the brand name Nolvadex by AstraZeneca and is now marketed by several generic drugmakers, Reuters reports (Reuters, 7/23). Under current treatment guidelines, physicians are advised to consider tamoxifen for women whose breast cancer risk is 1.67% or higher. Risk is assessed using a test that accounts for age, family history, childbirth and other factors. For the study, Joy Melnikow, a professor of family and community medicine at the University of California-Davis, and colleagues used a computer program to create a simulated group of women with a 1% to 5% breast cancer risk. Using the program, researchers calculated the group's survival rate, accounting for the mortality rates of various types of cancers, the effects of tamoxifen, the groups' natural mortality rate, the price of tamoxifen and the number of women who would need to take the treatment in order to prevent one death. According to the study, the benefits of tamoxifen in preventing deaths among women on the border of high risk "are very small or nonexistent." The treatment provided a worthwhile reduction in mortality for women with a breast cancer risk of 3% or above, the study finds. For one woman to experience one extra year of life by taking tamoxifen, the cost to the medical system as a whole would be more than $1.3 million, the study finds. Melnikow said, "Overall, the impact is not going to be as large as people had originally hoped." Michael Grant of Baylor University Medical Center, who has conducted separate studies on tamoxifen, said the new study "is making a lot of assumptions that don't translate into real life." Grant said computer estimation tools have limitations, adding that mortality projection "puts no value on not getting cancer and not having to go through chemo." He also said that tamoxifen has not had a demonstrated effect on mortality. The study does not investigate the effectiveness of tamoxifen as a treatment for breast cancer (Beil, Dallas Morning News, 7/23). You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com
Reprinted with permission from www.kaisernetwork.org.
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
