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Biotech / Medical : Ligand (LGND) Breakout! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bob zagorin who wrote (28903)	6/16/1999 5:18:00 AM
From: John S.Taylor	Respond to of 32384

June 16, 1999 Drug Slashes Breast Cancer Risk, Study Shows -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Articles Round 3 in Cancer Battle: A 5-Year Drug Regimen (May 11) Breast Cancer Studies Stir Doubts on a Drugs-Transplant Therapy (April 16) Breast Cancer Drug Shown to Be More Effective Than Previously Thought (April 14) Issue in Depth: Women's Health Forum Join a Discussion on Women's Health -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN inal results of an international study reported Tuesday show that a drug approved to fight the bone disease osteoporosis significantly decreased the risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal women. Women who took the drug, raloxifene, for three years reduced the risk of breast cancer by 76 percent compared with those who took a dummy pill in the study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Preliminary findings from the study were reported at a scientific meeting last year. "The results were quite dramatic, and we do not often see this amount of reduction in preventive medicine," the head of the study, Dr. Steven R. Cummings of the University of California at San Francisco, said in an interview. But it is premature to recommend raloxifene to lower the risk of developing breast cancer except in clinical trials, the American Society of Clinical Oncology said. For one thing, it remains to be seen whether the benefit is long-lasting. In treating breast cancer, doctors have long prescribed a related drug, tamoxifen, to block the action of the female hormone, estrogen, on breast tissue, where it can promote the growth of cancer. Last year the Food and Drug Administration approved tamoxifen as a cancer preventive for postmenopausal women at high risk of developing the disease. But tamoxifen has its own hazards, like increasing the risk of cancer of the uterus and formation of blood clots in leg veins that can be fatal if they travel to the lungs. Clots are also an unwanted effect of raloxifene, the new study found. Approval of raloxifene as a treatment to prevent breast cancer would probably increase sales of the drug, whose maker, Eli Lilly & Company, sells it under the name Evista. Lilly financed the study reported yesterday. Scientists believe that raloxifene prevents estrogen-related breast cancers by occupying the same molecular receptor sites as the estrogen molecule on the surface of cells. Raloxifene blocks estrogen's cancer promoting effects on breast and endometrial tissue, and scientists have tested raloxifene in the hope it will be safer than tamoxifen. The National Cancer Institute is sponsoring a head-to-head trial of tamoxifen and raloxifene as breast cancer preventions among 22,000 women in 400 medical centers in the United States and Canada. The study was originally designed mainly to determine whether a three-year course of raloxifene treatment reduces the risk of broken bones among postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. Dr. Cummings said findings from that portion of the study were to be published soon. Dr. Cummings's team also designed the study to test other conditions. The breast cancer section involved 7,705 women under the age of 81 who were treated in 180 clinical centers in the United States and 24 other countries, mostly in Europe. Of these, 2,557 received the usual once-a-day tablet. Another 2,572 women took two tablets a day because the scientists were uncertain of the most effective dose. A third group of 2,576 women took two dummy pills a day. The scientists found 27 breast cancer cases among the 2,576 who received the dummy pills compared with 13 cases among the 5,129 women who received raloxifene. The amount of raloxifene did not make a difference in preventing breast cancer. "The reduction in risk of breast cancer within the first 40 months of treatment probably represents suppression or regression of subclinical cancer," the authors wrote, referring to cancers that are too small to be detected. In the study, women taking raloxifene were more likely to report hot flashes, influenza-like symptoms, and cramps and fluid accumulation in the legs. Dr. Cummings said the study was being extended four years to learn about the long-term effects of raloxifene and to help identify factors that may predispose some women taking raloxifene to develop blood clots. Participants choosing to continue will take one raloxifene tablet a day or a placebo, Dr. Cummings said. He said another leading medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, had initially agreed to publish the raloxifene report the AMA journal published Tuesday. But Dr. Cummings said the New England journal had a rigid policy against reporting studies whose data had been publicized. He said the journal returned the paper unpublished because news releases were issued in conjunction with a lecture that a co-author, Dr. V. Craig Jordan of Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, gave at a cancer meeting last fall. In it, he reviewed all studies involving raloxifene, Dr. Cummings said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Home \| Site Index \| Site Search \| Forums \| Archives \| Marketplace Quick News \| Page One Plus \| International \| National/N.Y. \| Business \| Technology \| Science \| Sports \| Weather \| Editorial \| Op-Ed \| Arts \| Automobiles \| Books \| Diversions \| Job Market \| Real Estate \| Travel Help/Feedback \| Classifieds \| Services \| New York Today Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company Advertisement