Breast Cancer Warded Off for More Than a Decade Thanks to Tamoxifen

More than 150,000 women in the U.S. each year suffer from estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer, also referred to as hormone-sensitive breast cancer. According to a study published in The Lancet today, taking adjuvant Tamoxifen daily for five years reduces the risk of dying from the disease by one-third.
Tamoxifen therapy was developed in the early 1980s and works by blocking estrogen receptors that feed the tumor. It’s never been a question of whether or not the drug works, but the Lancet study concluded with significant evidence the profound and long-term effects of the drug
"It is an extraordinary drug in terms of the protection it offers women in the decade after treatment," said Christina Davies, a senior research scientist at the Clinical Trial Service Unit at Oxford University and the study's lead author. "It's off-patent, it's cheap and it's available to women worldwide."
The data collected from randomized studies, by the EBCTCG (Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group), found that 20,000 females, from a dozen countries around the world, who were diagnosed with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer, and took five years of daily Tamoxifen therapy had reduced their 15-year risk of recurrence, regardless of chemotherapy treatment.
The Lancet study revealed that, “of 10,645 women who took Tamoxifen, about 26 percent had a relapse at the ten-year-mark, compared to 40 percent who didn't take the medication.
According to Lead EBCTCG investigator, Christina Davies, "Breast cancer is a nasty disease because it can come back years later. This study now shows that Tamoxifen produces really long-term protection. For ER-positive disease, Tamoxifen reduces fifteen-year breast cancer mortality by at least a third, whether or not chemotherapy has been given.”Source:healthnews