Monday 3 June 2013

Doubling time on Tamoxifen cuts odds for breast cancer's return

A new study conducted at the University of Oxford indicates that patients undergoing 10 years of tamoxifen for breast cancer treatment developed a lower risk of cancer recurrence compared to the current standard 5 year treatment cycle.

Involving almost 5,000 breast cancer patients, all of which had already been treated with tamoxifen for 5 years upon entering the study, lead author Richard Gray and his team noted that an extra 5 years of tamoxifen has a definite impact: "breast cancer recurrence was lower among the 10-year group than the 5-year group, at 16.7% vs. 19.3% respectively."  These figures indicate that continuing tamoxifen treatment for double the standard treatment period thus reduces the overal risk of dying from breast cancer.

To read more about this study, presented on June 2, 2013 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, click here  

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