Tamoxifen Found Not to Affect Cardiac Risk

The drug tamoxifen, taken to prevent breast cancer, does not affect cardiovascular risk in healthy women or in women with coronary heart disease, according to a large clinical study published in the January 3 issue of Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The study involved 13,388 women at increased risk for breast cancer who were randomly assigned to receive tamoxifen or a placebo between 1992 and 1997. After four years, cardiovascular follow-up was available for 13,194 women, of whom 1,048 had a prior history of clinical coronary heart disease and 12,146 reported no such history. The study found that women who had coronary heart disease when they entered the study had a higher rate of cardiovascular events than the women without heart problems. However, within each group, there was no difference in the rate of cardiovascular events between those receiving tamoxifen and those receiving a placebo.

"These findings should provide a degree of comfort to those women who are taking tamoxifen for breast cancer protection,” said Steven Reis, M.D., principal investigator in the study and associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.



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