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

To: Andrew H who wrote (10455)	10/30/1997 6:32:00 PM
From: squetch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

>>I am sure there are many women similar to her.<< Andy, I hope you tell her she is one in a million.(:>) squetch

To: Andrew H who wrote (10455)	10/30/1997 9:17:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 32384

Andy, Women taking estrogen have a added risk of breast cancer and endometrial cancer. SERMs are developed to avoid these complications while maintaining benefits associated with estrogen (bone and cardiovacular). Tamoxifen is the most widely studied SERM. It is a hormonal treatment for breast cancer and was used in a clinical trial to prevent breast cancer. Healthy women with a high risk of developing breast cancer were enrolled. The study was halted (and I think subsequently terminated) when the incidence of endometrial cancer was unacceptably high. The risk is worth the reward in patients with breast cancer, but not worth it in health women where the benfits have yet to be demonstrated directly. The most advanced SERMs (Evista, aka Raloxifene, Droloxifene, Idoxifene) are in trials, but not that much info is available. The trials include osteoporosis and breast cancer. I am not aware of an increased breast cancer risk (but most of the clinical data has either not been unblinded or published). Since the most adavnced trial for Droloxifene is to treat women who already have breast cancer, I doubt that Droloxifene increases breast cancer risk (but I'm not sure about endometrial cancer). With PFE, LGND has two SERMs in patients (Droloxifene and CP-366,156). With AHP they have a compound ready to enter the clinic. With LLY, there already is a compound in advanced osteoporosis trials (Evista/Raloxifene). LGND has shown in rat models of breast cancer that Targretin can actually prevent breast cancer as well as Tamoxifen can. However, it doesn't stimulate endometrial growth or cancer. In fact, when given in combination with Tamoxifen, it reduces or blocks endometrial growth due to the Tamoxifen. Clinical trials in breast cancer using Tamoxifen in combination with Targretn or Panretin have already begun. I sure that the research deal with LLY will explore using rexinoids in combination with SERMs such as Evista.