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Results of trials involving a total of 19,000 postmenopausal women indicate that the drug raloxifene can prevent breast cancer without producing the side effects linked to tamoxifen, a drug whose preventative benefits appear to be offset by an increased risk of uterine cancer. Results of clinical trials on raloxifene, which is used to treat osteoporosis, were reported in the April 21 edition of The Wall Street Journal.
Researchers had announced earlier last month that tamoxifen, which has been used for more than two decades to fight cancer, also can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 45% among women at high risk of developing the disease. However, it also may increase the risk of blood clots and uterine cancer.
The results of one raloxifene trial, conducted by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco, showed a 74% decrease in the incidence of breast cancer in women who took the drug over an average of two years and five months.
During the study, there were twice as many woman in the raloxifene group as were in the control group, who received only a placebo. Eleven of the women on raloxifene had new breast cancers confirmed during the study; 21 women in the control group developed new breast cancers.
In the tamoxifen trials, users developed uterine cancer at more than twice the rate of placebo takers. In the raloxifene trials, users had a lower rate of uterine cancer than those who took placebos.
The new studies were sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company, which markets raloxifene as Evista for osteoporosis.
Richard Klausner, MD, head of the National Cancer Institute, said his organization will begin head-to-head studies of raloxifene and tamoxifen later this year. Klausner indicated that more study is required before recommendations can be made about the benefits and risks associated with the two drugs.
Study Reveals High Rate of Medication Problems in Hospitals
Study results released last month suggest that one in 15 hospital patients in the United States experience a serious adverse drug event, and about one in 312 experience a fatal drug-related event.
More than 2 million U.S. hospital patients become seriously ill each year due to correct use of "properly prescribed" medications, and 106,000 die as a result, concludes the new study, which appeared in the April 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
If accurate, these figures indicate that drug-related problems may be the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, right behind heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Previous studies of this type examined only cases in which drugs were prescribed or taken incorrectly.
Researchers are calling for additional investigations to determine which drugs cause the most problems and which patients are more at risk. In the meantime, consumers have been advised not to overreact to the study's findings by failing to take their medications.