[Can breast cancer be chemoprevented in 2003?].
Breast cancer is certainly not preventable at the same degree as lung cancer is by avoiding cigarette smoking or bladder cancer by avoiding exposure to some specific professional carcinogens. Despite the increased availability of screening mammography and the use of adjuvant chemotherapy, breast cancer remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in women. Chemoprevention could be one of the possible weapons to decrease the morbidity and the mortality due to breast cancer. Experimental, epidemiological and clinical data suggest that one can prevent occurrence of breast cancer. The results of five trials including more than 25,000 patients comparing the effectiveness of tamoxifen with a placebo were published. The results of these trials, at first sight, do not agree. Only in the USA, the results of the five trials have led to licence tamoxifen for chemoprevention of breast cancer. But the Food and Drug Administration stresses the fact that the noxious side effects are too numerous for this molecule to be prescribed with all the patients. It must be reserved for the women presenting an increased risk. The means of identifying the women at increased risk are not yet perfect.
Vinatier
D
D
Service de gynécologie chirurgicale, hôpital Jeanne-de-Flandre, 59037 cedex, Lille, France. dvinatier@chru-lille.fr <dvinatier@chru-lille.fr>
Orazi
G
G
D047072:Aromatase Inhibitors; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018890:Chemoprevention; D018849:Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004965:Estrogen Antagonists / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D010919:Placebos; D012176:Retinoids / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012307:Risk Factors; D013629:Tamoxifen / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use
D047072:Aromatase Inhibitors; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D004965:Estrogen Antagonists; D010919:Placebos; D012176:Retinoids; D013629:Tamoxifen