Women at high risk for breast cancer might have a safer option for preventing the disease, doctors said yesterday after concluding one of the largest breast cancer prevention trials in history.

A nationwide trial among more than 19,000 post-menopausal women showed that a popular drug used to prevent and treat osteoporosis is just as effective in staving off breast cancer as the older standby, tamoxifen, but with fewer side effects.

Both medications cut in half a woman's chance of developing breast cancer, but women taking the osteoporosis drug - called raloxifene and sold as Evista - developed fewer uterine cancers and blood clots. They also suffered fewer hot flashes, night sweats and other unpleasant symptoms.

"This is good news for women," said Dr. Leslie Ford, associate director for clinical research at the National Cancer Institute. "We think this gives women a real choice."

"It's clear that we feel that raloxifene is the winner in this trial," said Dr. D. Lawrence Wickerham, associate chairman of a nationwide consortium that organized the trial. "Already, a half-million or more women are on raloxifene for treatment or prevention of osteoporosis. It's likely this will allow for expansion of that population."

For now, only tamoxifen has government approval as a preventive measure against breast cancer, although researchers said yesterday that they expect Eli Lilly, which makes raloxifene, to seek permission.

Legally, however, doctors can prescribe drugs approved for one condition to treat another.

An estimated 9 million women in the United States are post-menopausal and at increased risk for breast cancer.

In 1998, a landmark trial demonstrated tamoxifen's powerful effect in preventing breast cancer in high-risk patients. But women have generally avoided taking it for that purpose because it was associated with a higher risk of uterine cancer and blood clots of major veins or the lung. Both are potentially life-threatening.

Researchers turned their attention to raloxifene after an osteoporosis trial produced evidence that women who took the drug also had a lower incidence of breast cancer than those taking the placebo.

Osteoporosis is a bone-thinning disease common in post-menopausal women.

Full Story: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.cancer18apr18,0,2053524.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

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