TAMOXIFEN OF BENEFIT IN OSTEOPOROSIS?

5 April 1992

A US study looking at the effects of Imperial Chemical Industries' synthetic anti-estrogen Nolvadex (tamoxifen) in post-menopausal women with early-stage breast cancer has discovered that the drug prevents bone resorption. The finding may indicate a possible additional benefit for tamoxifen, the prevention of osteoporosis. Further-more, the new data may help clear the way for studies to see if tamoxifen can prevent first episodes of breast cancer in women at high risk of the disease.

There has been mounting pressure from medical charities in both the UK and the USA to perform long-term studies of tamoxifen in these patients, but the trials have been held back because of fears about the effects of the drug, which is generally taken for several years, on other organ systems such as the skeleton. As tamoxifen has both anti-estrogen and estrogen agonist properties, there have been questions over whether the drug would either enhance bone loss in postmenopausal women or minimize it.

Using photon absorptiometry, the researchers studied the effects of 10mg tamoxifen twice-daily on the bone mineral density of the lumbar spine and radius, and on biochemical measures of bone metabolism in 140 postmenopausal women with primary breast cancer. The study was randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled and lasted two years. It is published in the New England Journal of Medicine (March 26).

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