On Healthy Living

There’s big news today for all women worried about getting breast cancer. A study has shown that the osteoporosis drug raloxifine is just as effective at preventing breast cancer in post-menopausal women as is tamoxifen, with a reduction in side effects including blood clots, uterine cancer and cataracts.

The study only looked at postmenopausal women, but it is expected similar results could be found in other women taking the drug. Raloxifine is marketed as Evista, which about half a million women already take for osteoporosis.

Some caution that you shouldn’t run to your doctor for a prescription just yet. The number of people studied, fewer than 20,000, makes for a very small sample with a relatively low risk of breast cancer before the study. Still, if you have immediate family members who have had breast cancer, you might want to watch the news and talk to your doctor when this treatment is approved.

Sarah White wrote this on April 18th, 2006 and filed it under Healthy Living, Women's Health, Health & Aging |