New Drug For Breast Cancer Prevention

One more breakthrough and one more addition to the armamentarium to fight against breast cancer. National Cancer Institute reports that one of the largest breast cancer studies ever done showed that the osteoporosis drug Raloxifene (Evista andreg;) is as effective as tamoxifen in the prevention of breast cancer.

Raloxifene (Evista andreg;) has a lower side effort profile compared to tamoxifen and has 36 percent fewer uterine cancer risk and about 30 percent fewer risk of blood compared to Tamoxifen.

Tamoxifen is indicated for women who are at high risk of developing breast cancer for example those women who carry BRCA mutations. Since Raloxifene is as effective as tamoxifen with lesser side effects, this drug may soon replace Tamoxifen for prevention of breast cancer in high-risk women. Raloxifene needs approval from FDA as a breast cancer prevention drug before it could be used for this purpose.

Currently an estimate 500,000 women use Raloxifene to reduce the risk of osteoporosis, so it is expected that a number of women will be comfortable using it for breast cancer prevention.

"There is something proactive you can do if you're at higher than average risk of getting breast cancer," said Dr. James Stewart who is the director of the breast cancer program at the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center. "The sticky part of it will be sitting down with your doctor to talk about are the expected benefits worth it".

"This is good news for women," said Leslie Ford of the National Cancer Institute, which sponsored the $88 million study and released the preliminary findings early because of their public health implications. "Women now have a new option".