Tamoxifen Has No Heart-Related Effects.

2001 JAN 25 - (NewsRx.com) -- The breast cancer prevention drug, tamoxifen, does not influence cardiovascular risk in healthy women or in women with coronary heart disease, according to a study published in the January 3, 2001, issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The study, the largest clinical trial to assess the cardiovascular risk of tamoxifen, is part of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project Breast Cancer Prevention Trial.

"We found that cardiovascular event rates were not statistically significantly different between women assigned to tamoxifen or placebo, independent of pre-existing coronary heart disease," stated Steven Reis, MD, principal investigator in the study, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, UPMC Health System's Cardiovascular Institute. "These findings should provide a degree of comfort to those women who are taking tamoxifen for breast cancer prevention."

Cardiovascular events included fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction, unstable angina, and severe angina.

Between 1992 and 1997, 13,388 women at increased risk for breast cancer were randomly assigned to receive tamoxifen or a placebo. After four years, cardiovascular follow-up was available for 13,194 women. Of them, 1,048 had a prior history of clinical coronary heart disease such as heart attack or angina and 12,146 women reported no such history.

The study found that women who had coronary heart disease when they entered the study had a higher rate of ...