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Tamoxifen risk: blood clots

01 December 1995

Hopes of finding healthy women to test tamoxifen, the breast cancer drug, have taken a further blow following a new study from Scotland.

Researchers have discovered that women who have taken the drug for up to 14 years face a greater risk of developing thromboembolism, when the blood vessel becomes blocked by a clot.

Paradoxically, the drug also reduces the risk of heart attack, although researchers from the University of Edinburgh warn that healthy women taking the drug should be carefully monitored.

Research in the US and the UK, to test whether tamoxifen is an effective cancer preventative in healthy women, has been delayed following a rash of bad publicity surrounding the drug. As a result, few women were prepared to volunteer.

A Swedish study, in 1994, revealed the drug could cause uterine cancer after long-term use, while later research also revealed a link to gastrointestinal cancer.

The National Cancer Institute in the US and the new Edinburgh study both emphasize that the drug's risks are far outweighed by the benefits in women already suffering from breast cancer (BMJ, October 14, 1995).

Tamoxifen - The breast cancer drug tamoxifen-marketed in the UK as Emblon, Noltam and Tamofen, and as Nolvadex in the US and the UK-has been enjoying some favoura...

Progestogen linked with blood clots - Synthetic progesterone taken for therapeutic purposes such as dysfunctional uterine bleeding may increase the risk of heart disease, according to new...

Hrt: new risks of blood clots - Women on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) increase their chances of thrombosis nearly four times, a major study has discovered. ...

Stronger warning for tamoxifen - Tamoxifen, the breast cancer drug currently in the middle of a controversy over its safety, is to carry a stronger warning in the US. New labelling on...

Cancer drug tamoxifen takes another knock - The reputation of the breast cancer drug tamoxifen has taken another serious knock following the publication of two European trials that show it is no...

Newer pill raises risk of blood clots - Doctors have noted that women using third generation birth control have a higher risk of thromboembolism. Now they know why. ...

Widespread use of tamoxifen as preventative feared - American drug regulators look like opening the floodgates on the use of the breast cancer drug tamoxifen. It is about to be licensed in the US as a p...

Breast cancer drug can weaken bones - Have you any up-to-date information on anastrozole, which I have been taking for two and a half years, following breast cancer in 1996 and lymph-node...

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