For over twenty years, the gold standard in long-term chemoprevention for women with estrogen-positive breast cancer was Tamoxifen. It seemed to work well in preventing recurrence of breast cancer for a certain percentage of women taking it for five years. Tamoxifen had its drawbacks though, as it was known to increase the risk for uterine cancer, blood clots and strokes. But there was nothing else that worked as well at preventing breast cancer from coming back, so women took it and hoped for the best. A few months ago, researchers found that raloxifene, known by most as Evista, worked just as well as Tamoxifen with fewer of the potentially life-threatening side-effects of Tamoxifen. Seemed like good news at the time. But as I like to point out on a semi-regular basis, I feel there is a rush to swallow the latest newest pill before taking a long look at the potential dangers. Every pill comes with dangers. It is a matter of calculated risks when deciding to take a drug that might save your life only to cause a whole new set of medical problems.
And now Eli Lilly, Evista's drug maker, has come out with a new warning that its drug, previously thought to be safer than Tamoxifen, increases the risk for stroke. According to Eli Lilly, the finding was made during a study designed to see if raloxifene reduced the risk of heart disease and breast cancer in postmenopausal women who had heart disease or were considered at high risk.
