Tamoxifen Speeds Diagnosis Of Ernegative Breast Cancer
Tamoxifen Speeds Diagnosis of ER-Negative Breast Cancer
For the study, 13,388 women at high risk of breast cancer participated in the trial; 174 women were diagnosed with ER-positive tumors and 69 women with ER-negative tumors. The median time to diagnosis for ER-negative disease was 36 months in the placebo group but only 24 months in the tamoxifen group.
The median time to diagnosis for ER-positive disease was similar in the placebo and tamoxifen groups at 43 and 51 months, respectively, which is not statistically different.
It’s not clear why the diagnosis time of ER-negative tumors is so different, but the authors hypothesized that the drug may make the tumors more detectable. No evidence was found that tamoxifen altered the growth rate of ER-negative disease.
The study was published online Oct. 7 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The findings should be investigated further, the researchers concluded.
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