Is Tamoxifen that helpful?
Tamoxifen, the pill that prevents breast cancer in high-risk women, does not appear in the long run to save many lives. Women at the highest risk of breast cancer do appear to live longer if they take tamoxifen. But for women at the low end of the high-risk group, the sometimes serious side effects of tamoxifen outweigh the benefits. Tamoxifen can cause blood clots and uterine cancer. Melnikow and her colleagues calculated that tamoxifen can extend life expectancy only when a woman’s five-year risk of developing breast cancer is 3 percent or higher. This is especially true for women who have not had a hysterectomy, and thus risk endometrial cancer from taking tamoxifen. Many women are in any case switching to a newer class of drugs known as aromatase inhibitors to treat breast cancer or to the osteoporosis drug raloxifene to prevent it. Raloxifene, made by Eli Lilly and Co. under the name Evista, has been shown to prevent breast cancer as well as tamoxifen does, without causing as many
