No Excess CV Events Seen With Raloxifene Use.

In contrast, estrogen has been shown to raise CV risk in some women.

ORLANDO, FLA. - Raloxifene may be safer for hormone replacement in postmenopausal women than estrogen.

In a secondary analysis of data on 7,705 postmenopausal women from the Multiple Outcomes of Raloxifene Evaluation (MORE) trial, raloxifene showed no evidence of causing an excess of cardiovascular events during either the first year of treatment or the entire 3 years of the study, Dr. Elizabeth Barrett-Connor said at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology.

The finding that raloxifene, a synthetic estrogen receptor modifier, is safe contrasts with two reports of excess cardiovascular events linked with estrogen therapy in postmenopausal women. Results from the Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study showed a 50% excess of cardiovascular events in women with a history of cardiovascular disease during the first year that they received estrogen plus progestin.

And in April 2000 the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., reported that postmenopausal women in the Women's Health Initiative had a small but detectable (less than 1%) excess risk of cardiovascular events linked with their use of estrogen or estrogen plus progestin. Most of these women did not have cardiovascular disease when they entered the study.

Most women did not have cardiovascular disease when they entered the MORE trial, which was sponsored by Eli Lilly, the maker of Evista (raloxifene). In the study, women were randomized to daily treatment with either 60 mg or 120 mg of raloxifene or placebo. The primary outcome was ...