Drug cuts recurrence of breast cancer.Letrozole, a drug that derails the body's production of estrogen, reduces breast cancer recurrences in women who have exhausted the usefulness of the anticancer drug anticancer drug see antineoplastic. anticancer drug Chemotherapeutic, see there tamoxifen tamoxifen (təmŏk`sĭfĕn'), synthetic hormone used in the treatment of breast cancer. Introduced in 1978, tamoxifen is used to prevent recurrences of cancer in women who have already undergone surgery to remove their tumors. , a new drug trial has revealed. Tamoxifen stops breast cancers in many women by interfering with estrogen's proliferative effect on tumor cells. But taking tamoxifen for more than 5 years provides no additional benefit, compared with going off the drug after that period. Researchers identified 5,157 post-menopausal women who had taken tamoxifen for about 5 years and randomly assigned them to take either an inert pill or letrozole, which wipes out nearly all estrogen in the body. The scientists stopped the study when it became clear that the group receiving letrozole had roughly three-fifths as many breast cancer recurrences as did women getting the placebo, says study coauthor Paul E. Goss, a medical oncologist medical oncologist Oncology An oncologist who diagnoses and treats cancer with chemotherapy, hormones, biologicals, or immunologic agents; the MO becomes a cancer Pt's de facto primary care giver, and coordinates treatment provided by other specialists. at Princess Margaret Hospital There are several Princess Margaret Hospitals :
Letrozole disables an enzyme called aromatase, which the body needs to make estrogen. Another aromatase inhibitor aromatase inhibitor n. A drug that inhibits tumor growth, especially breast cancer, by inhibiting the enzyme aromatase and thereby lowering estrogen levels in the blood or in tumor tissues. , the drug anastrozole, is also being tested for cancer-fighting abilities (SN: 11/24/01, p. 327). Although tamoxifen's anticancer effect levels out at 5 years, there's no question that the drug imparts a residual benefit even after long-term users stop taking it. Indeed, no one knows how long the benefits of tamoxifen or the aromatase inhibitors might linger. That and the question of whether the drugs might interact in good or bad ways when given simultaneously are the topics of several studies now under way. Letrozole is marketed as Femara by Novartis in New York, which was a sponsor of the newly reported trial.--S.P. |
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