Anti-estrogen medication ‘cuts risk of dying from lung cancer’
By ANIMonday, January 24, 2011
WASHINGTON - Tamoxifen, an anti-estrogen breast cancer medication, may reduce an individual’s risk of death from lung cancer, says a new study.
The research supports the hypothesis that there is a hormonal influence on lung cancer and that estrogen levels play a role in lung cancer patients’ prognosis.
Led by Elisabetta Rapiti of the Geneva Cancer Registry, the study compared lung cancer incidence and mortality among breast cancer patients who were and were not treated with anti-estrogen therapy.
The study included all 6,655 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1980 and 2003 and registered at the Geneva Cancer Registry.
Among these women, 46 percent received anti-estrogens. All women were followed for occurrence and death from lung cancer until December 2007.
The investigators found that 40 women in the study developed lung cancer.
Incidences of lung cancer was not significantly different between breast cancer patients who were and were not treated with anti-estrogens compared with the general population; however, fewer women taking anti-estrogens died from lung cancer than expected.
Specifically, there were 87 percent fewer cases of death due to lung cancer in the anti-estrogen group than in the general population.
The study has been published online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. (ANI)
