Hormonal or Anti-estrogen Therapy

If you are at high risk for breast cancer, you may want to consider taking protective medication. Medicine can reduce estrogen's ability to stimulate the growth of breast cells.

Tamoxifen has been shown to reduce the risk of first-time breast cancer in women at high risk. It also reduces the risk of a hormone-receptor-positive cancer coming back in women who have already been diagnosed. The use of tamoxifen to reduce the risk of breast cancer in women at high risk has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Clinical trials are looking at the use of other anti-estrogen medications to reduce breast cancer risk in women at high risk.

You might consider a course of tamoxifen to reduce your risk. Or you might participate in a clinical trial that offers an aromatase inhibitor to post-menopausal women at high risk of breast cancer (but without a personal history of the disease).