Is
tamoxifen more effective in a low estrogen environment
Interview
with Neil Love, MD from Breast Cancer Update for Medical Oncologists,
Program 2 2000
Play
Audio Below:
We’ve
had a hard time showing that tamoxifen has the same benefits in
premenopausal as in postmenopausal women. Now the last overview
suggested that if the patient was receptor-positive, that the magnitude
or the size of the benefit from tamoxifen was the same in the younger
and older women. The statistical significance wasn’t quite
the same, but that’s probably the fact that we were very late
in starting to treat younger women with tamoxifen and it’s
probably, therefore, related to a power issue. In other words, we
just haven’t studied as many. But there’s another thing
that puzzled me for a number of years, and that is that when we
first started doing indirect comparisons on the duration of adjuvant
tamoxifen, it was always striking to me that the duration effect
seemed to be much greater in younger than in older women. Now, don’t
mistake me – a longer duration, five years for example, is
better than two years in older women as well as younger women. It’s
just that we don’t really see a survival benefit with one year
or two years of tamoxifen in younger women.
Symposium
overview: Estrogens and antiestrogens in managing the patient with
breast cancer. Newman, L. A.; Wood, W. C.; Sellin, R. V.; Morrow,
M.; Vogel, C., and Singletary, S. E. (Reprint available from: Singletary
SE Univ Texas, MD Anderson Canc Ctr, Dept Surg Oncol 1515 Holcombe
Blvd,Box 106 Houston, TX 77030 USA).. Annals of Surgical Oncology.
7(8):568-574, 2000 Sep. In process
