Women who have suffered from breast cancer in the past, or who have been shown to have the oestrogen receptor type of early breast cancer are often prescribed Tamoxifen. This drug works by blocking the effects of the hormone oestrogen and thus reducing the risks of the serious health concerns associated with breast cancer.
This drug is widely used and has been reported to be extremely successful, with women reporting a good level of wellness and wellbeing whilst under a course of treatment. Generally, a five year course of the drug is recommended, in order to give it time to work on the cells. A new study has been conducted, however, which seems to show that patients could benefit from being prescribed for twice this length of time.
Research has already shown that Tamoxifen is highly effective, reducing the death rate from breast cancer significantly during the 15 years following a diagnosis. This further study was then commissioned to find out what would happen if the treatment was extended to ten years rather than five.
The study was carried out with 12,894 women who had already completed the usual five years of their Tamoxifen treatment. They were then randomly assigned to either continue with the Tamoxifen for another five years (bringing their total to ten) or to stop at five years as they normally would have. This created a control group to compare and contrast with.
Following on from this, the incidences of recurrence of breast cancer, occurrence of a secondary cancer, admission to hospital or death were recorded. The follow up of this study is still ongoing but results so far the results indicate that the women who continued to use Tamoxifen, had a reduced recurrence of breast cancer along with a reduced mortality, when compared to the control group. This would indicate at the drug Tamoxifen should be continued for a longer time period than it is currently prescribed for, although the research for this is still ongoing.
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