Letrozole is approved by the FDA for the adjuvant treatment of early - stage breast cancer in postmenopausal women who have already been treated with 5 years
of tamoxifen therapy.
Not exact matches
However, along with this seemingly linear storyline in which retinoids block progesterone's promotion
of CK5 + cells, previous work in the lab
of CU Cancer Center investigator Peter Kabos, MD, and others shows that breast cancers treated with anti-estrogen drugs like
tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors show an increased population
of CK5 + cells — it is as if these
therapies remove the roadblock
of estrogen - dependent cells, leaving CK5 + cells to proliferate.
The absence
of these receptors rules out proven hormone
therapies such as
tamoxifen.
Of these variants, reported today in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics, 65 are common variants that predispose to breast cancer and a further seven predispose specifically to oestrogen - receptor negative breast cancer - the subset of cases that do not respond to hormonal therapies, such as the drug tamoxife
Of these variants, reported today in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics, 65 are common variants that predispose to breast cancer and a further seven predispose specifically to oestrogen - receptor negative breast cancer - the subset
of cases that do not respond to hormonal therapies, such as the drug tamoxife
of cases that do not respond to hormonal
therapies, such as the drug
tamoxifen.
«By paralleling
tamoxifen», says McCague, «hopefully minimal side effects will result, which is an important consideration in the long - term
therapy of elderly patients.»
There are also preventive
therapies — such as
tamoxifen or the trial drug anastrazole — that interfere with the production
of the hormone oestrogen, implicated in many breast cancers.
Now, all breast cancers are classified as estrogen - receptor positive or negative, an important guide to prognosis and
therapy, and medications, such as
tamoxifen, that can block the effects
of estrogen have become important tools in the treatment and possible prevention
of breast cancer.
This puts Herceptin and hormone
therapies, such as
tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors, entirely out
of reach as treatment options.
A recent study
of women whose cancer was treated with
tamoxifen therapy and who were also taking the antidepressant paroxetine demonstrates the potential problems
of using these drugs: the patients increased their risk
of death by 91 %.
One study showed that when curcumin is used together with
tamoxifen in treating melanoma (the deadliest form
of skin cancer), the combined
therapy selectively killed cancerous cells while preserving noncancerous cells.
New Drug
Therapies for Breast Cancer
Tamoxifen has been used for twenty years in the treatment
of advanced breast cancer.