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So-called estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer is the most common type of breast cancer. Women who took Evista (raloxifene) were 55% less likely to develop this type of cancer than women taking a placebo. Because raloxifene acts on estrogen, scientists had assumed it would be more effective against estrogen-receptor-positive cancer. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco tested this, using a group 10,000 women who originally volunteered for a study to see if the drug can lower the risk of heart disease. The Raloxifene Use for the Heart (RUTH) trial showed that the drug did not protect against heart disease. But it did reduce the risk of invasive ER-positive breast cancer by 55% over 5.6 years, compared with women not taking the drug. The was no reduction in the risk of other types of breast cancer, including noninvasive breast cancer, or carcinoma in situ. Raloxifene is a drug already approved for reducing the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women who have osteoporosis. It is a selective estrogen receptor modulator, or SERM, and prevents osteoporosis in a different way than other types of osteoporosis drugs known as bisphosphonates. Overall, clinical evidence is accumulating that the SERMs hold great promise in being able to control multiple diseases. Until recently, it was generally believed that hormone replacement therapy was the answer to controlling the development of coronary heart disease and osteoporosis but at the price of an enhanced risk of invasive breast cancer. The results of this study is good news indeed.
Other news in this month - Sleep Apnea Linked to Memory Loss June 27, 2008 |
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