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Breast Cancer Drug May Help Healthy Women
A DGReview of :"Tamoxifen and Cardiac Risk Factors in Healthy Women: Suggestion of an Anti-inflammatory Effect"
Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology
02/21/2001
By Anne MacLennan
Tamoxifen has been found to have effects on inflammatory markers that are consistent with reduced cardiovascular risk.
This finding, from a multi-centre study, is in contrast to recent reports of increased C-reactive protein linked with postmenopausal estrogen. It also suggests the potential for beneficial cardiovascular effects of this drug in healthy women.
Although tamoxifen reduces incidences of breast cancer in women who are at risk for that disease, it is also associated with venous thrombosis.
This, together with the fact that heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, prompted the current investigation of the link between tamoxifen and cardiovascular risk factors.
Contributing researchers were from the University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont; University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, all in the United States.
Researchers enrolled 111 healthy women at a single centre who were participating in a randomized, double-blind, breast cancer prevention trial.
Researchers compared the six-month effects of oral tamoxifen (20 mg/d) versus placebo on factors related to inflammation, hemostatis and lipids.
Tamoxifen was found to be linked with reductions of 26 percent in median C-reactive protein, 22 percent in median fibrinogen and nine percent in cholesterol compared to placebo.
No differences were found in treatment effects on factor VII coagulant activity, fragment 1-2 or triglycerides.
In further analyses, the effect of tamoxifen on C-reactive protein was larger in postmenopausal women and in those with higher waist-to-hip ratios.
It was also larger in women with higher baseline cholesterol.
These researchers conclude that the effects shown on inflammatory markers by tamoxifen were consistent with reduced cardiovascular risk and suggest the potential for beneficial effects with this drug in healthy women.
Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2001;21:255.
"Tamoxifen and Cardiac Risk Factors in Healthy Women: Suggestion of an Anti-inflammatory Effect"
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