Benefits of Tamoxifen

Tamoxifen is a powerful medicine that has helped millions of women fight hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer for more than 30 years. It helps women at high risk for breast cancer and women with any stage of disease. And it works well in women of all ages. In many parts of the world, tamoxifen is the only form of hormonal therapy available.

Tamoxifen is the hormonal treatment of choice for pre-menopausal women, and it's considered second in line after aromatase inhibitors for post-menopausal women.

Tamoxifen can:

• reduce the risk of a first-time breast cancer in women who are at high risk but have no personal history of the disease.
• reduce the risk of breast cancer returning. It can reduce recurrence by 40–50% in post-menopausal women and about 30–50% in pre-menopausal women.
• reduce the risk of a new breast cancer developing. If you have had breast cancer in one breast, you are at increased risk of getting cancer in the other breast, compared with women without any personal history of breast cancer. Tamoxifen can reduce this risk by about 50%. One study suggested that tamoxifen lowered risk of a new breast cancer by about two-thirds in post-menopausal women.
• shrink large, hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers before surgery. This might let you have a lumpectomy and radiation as opposed to mastectomy.
• control the growth of advanced (metastatic) breast cancer in both pre- and post-menopausal women. Tamoxifen can stop progression of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer in other parts of the body in about 75% of women for an extended period of time.

Tamoxifen also has general health benefits that are unrelated to its anti–breast cancer benefits. As a selective estrogen-receptor modulator (SERM) it "selectively" stimulates estrogen receptors in bone tissue and in the liver's processing of cholesterol. As a result, tamoxifen can:

• help keep bones strong after menopause. Tamoxifen stops some of the bone loss that happens as we age. Women who take tamoxifen for five years have fewer wrist and hip fractures than women taking a placebo (dummy pill).
• reduce cholesterol levels. Tamoxifen lowers the amount of low-density lipoproteins (LDL, or "bad" cholesterol) in the bloodstream. But so far, this benefit of taking tamoxifen has not yet been proven to result in fewer heart attacks or strokes.

You'll want to consider these general health benefits when you discuss all the pros and cons of treatment with your doctor.