Task force addresses use of drugs to reduce breast cancer risk.

2002 AUG 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force today recommended that clinicians discuss the potential benefits and risks of taking prescription medicines such as tamoxifen to reduce the risk of breast cancer with their female patients who are at high risk for the disease.

The task force also recommended against the use of these drugs by women at low or average risk for breast cancer.

The task force, an independent panel of experts that is sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), reviewed three randomized controlled trials that studied the use of the drug tamoxifen and one study on the off-label use of the drug raloxifene to reduce the risk of breast cancer (known as "chemoprevention"). The task force's two recommendations were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Researchers have long known that tamoxifen can reduce the chances for a second episode of breast cancer in women who have already had breast cancer. But only recently have studies been done to see whether medications can reduce breast cancer risk in healthy women at high risk for the disease," said Janet Allan, PhD, RN, vice chair of the task force. "The task force found fair evidence that tamoxifen can significantly reduce the risk for invasive estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer by approximately 50% in women at high risk for the disease. We found ...