Drug Combos Linked To Breast Cancer Risk

Study: Risk Increases If Breast Cancer Survivors Use Certain Antidepressants With Tamoxifen

(AP)  Breast cancer survivors risk having their disease come back if they use certain antidepressants while also taking the cancer prevention drug tamoxifen, worrisome new research shows.

About 500,000 women in the United States take tamoxifen, which cuts in half the chances of a breast cancer recurrence. Many of them also take antidepressants for hot flashes, because hormone pills aren't considered safe after breast cancer.

Doctors have long known that some antidepressants and other medicines can lower the amount of tamoxifen's active form in the bloodstream. But whether this affects cancer risk is unknown.

The new study, reported Saturday at a cancer conference in Florida, is the largest to look at the issue. It found that using these interfering drugs - including Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft - can virtually wipe out the benefit tamoxifen provides.

Many doctors question the magnitude of harm from combining these medicines, and a second, smaller study suggests it may not be very large.

But the bottom line is the same: Not all antidepressants pose this problem, and women should talk to their doctors about which ones are best.

"There are other alternatives we can consider" that are safer, said Dr. Eric Winer, breast cancer chief at the Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Boston.

He had no role in the study, which was done by Medco Health Solutions Inc., a large insurance benefits manager. Researchers used members' medical records to identify 353 women taking tamoxifen plus other drugs that might interfere with it, and 945 women taking tamoxifen alone. Those taking a drug combo did so for about a year on average.

Next, researchers checked to see how many were treated for second cancers in the following two years. Breast cancer recurred in about 7 percent of women on tamoxifen alone, and in 14 percent of women also taking other drugs that could interfere - mainly the antidepressants Paxil and Prozac, and, to a lesser extent, Zoloft.

If women want to take an antidepressant, "you probably want to stay away from those three," said Medco's chief medical officer, Dr. Robert Epstein.

No greater breast cancer risk was seen in women taking the antidepressants Celexa, Lexapro or Luvox with tamoxifen, and there are reasons to think that other antidepressants may be safe as well, Epstein said.

A second study led by Dr. Vincent Dezentje of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands found little risk from combining tamoxifen and popular antidepressants. However, only 150 women in the study took such combos for more than two months, and they were compared to women taking combos for a shorter time - not to women using tamoxifen alone.

The Dutch and Medco studies were presented at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The federal Food and Drug Administration has been considering a change to tamoxifen's label to warn about the antidepressants drugs and a gene variation some women have that can make tamoxifen less effective. An advisory panel unanimously recommended a change in 2006, but the agency is still considering it.

"This is a very controversial area," said Dr. Claudine Isaacs, a breast specialist at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. "Until these data are absolutely clear, I would avoid drugs that impact on tamoxifen metabolism."

Breast cancer is the most common major cancer in American women. More than 182,000 new cases were diagnosed last year, and it caused nearly 41,000 deaths.

[tincup356]

I wonder how many billions of dollars big pharma SAID they spent on research and development for this drug? what ever it was it did not expose the problems related to it,,,OR,,,they knew , and falsified the results , OR,,,, they use lobby dollar credit to get the drugs approved,,,anything to get that drug on the market to poison the people ,,,after you break them of everything they have,,,to get the pills that actually only cost pennies,,,but sold for big bucks. It smells like a conspiracy to me...designed to rob and kill the people.

[rainbowbrew]

The FDA does no9t seem to care that is for sure. They work with the DEAth squads to continue the hiding of positive results in cannabis research. The research has to be done in Europe since we only have synthetic THC to test here in the USA.

Researchers have found cannabis chemicals kill cancer including breast and brain. But watch out becasue the political FDA will never say we made a mistake they just keep pushing it under the rug.

there is something really wrong with the healthcare industry if they are willing to not investigate. We know the big pharma won't look as they might loose a lot of money if more research finds validity in the few studies that have been done.

Morally bankrupt big pharma is along with their sidekicks the FDA, HHS, and DEAth squads.

[eroosevelt08]

I am grateful for the extra time my doctors took to go to medical school while their friends had more time to have a good time. I would have been dead a long time ago without them and I have not yet hit sixty. Thank you thank you thank you to all the health care providers who work to improve the quality of life!

Why would anyone take these synthetic poisons with so many side effects. The answer is in nature in the plant kingdom, all these greedy Pharmaceutical Companies did was find it and then make a synthetic so they could sell it for astronomical profits and pay the
Doctors and Hospital to pass it on. Healthcare in American is a scam, lead by the poisons statin drugs. Posted by Baileyccc

[goffredo29]

The fact that so many women on tamoxifen end up on antidepressants brings up a question: Why isn?t there a black box on the tamoxifen packages warning the partners of women taking tamoxifen? And, how many divorces do you suppose there are out there that were due to young women being prematurely driven into menopause in an otherwise happy marriage?

[troutfishyman]

test

[armyoftwelve]

It's good to know that only the drug combos cause cancer. It would be a different story if
Cheddar cheese Combos or Pizza Combos caused cancer....