The future of breast cancer prevention
March 31, 2011
Drugs could be used to prevent breast cancer in women at high risk of the disease in the same way that statins are used for heart disease if trials looking at ways of predicting risk are successful, according to an international panel of cancer experts.
Des médicaments pourraient être utilisé pour prévenir le cancer du à haut risque de la même manière que des statines le sont pour les maladies du coeursi les essais pour prévenir les risques sont concluants.In a review published in the journal Lancet Oncology the panel - including Professor Jack Cuzick from Queen Mary, University of London - agreed that all women with a greater than four per cent above average risk of getting breast cancer in the next ten years should be offered preventive measures and closer monitoring.
Toutes les femmes avec un risque supérieur à 4% d'avoir le cancer dans les 10 prochaines années devraient se voir offrir un meilleur suivi et des mesures préventives.The density of breast tissue as seen on a mammogram is one of the strongest indicators of breast cancer risk. Women with dense breast tissue are around four times more likely to be at risk of cancer than those with the least dense breasts.
La densité du tissu du sein établi avec un mammogramme est l'un des meilleurs indicateurs du risque du cancer du This could be used to identify women at high risk of getting breast cancer, much in the same way that cholesterol is used to identify people who could benefit from statins to reduce their heart disease risk.
A reduction in breast density could also be used as an indication of response to treatment, like the use of blood lipid levels to predict whether a patient’s heart disease risk has been lowered in response to statins.
Une réduction de la densité des tissus du sein est aussi un indicateur de la réponse au traitement.Chairman of the panel Professor Jack Cuzick, a Cancer Research UK epidemiologist based at Queen Mary, University of London, said: “There’s strong evidence to show that drugs such as tamoxifen are effective at preventing breast cancer in women with greater than average risk of the disease. But it’s important to find ways of predicting who will respond, so drugs like this can be targeted at those most likely to benefit and least likely to experience side effects.
“Increased breast density is one of the leading risk factors for breast cancer and early trial results suggest that where
tamoxifen is shown to decrease density the risk of cancer decreases. If this is confirmed in long-term studies, breast density could become a powerful way to identify high-risk women who could benefit from preventive treatments.”
A range of drugs have been considered for breast cancer prevention, including
tamoxifen and
raloxifene – which are licensed in the US – and newer drugs such as
lasofozifene,
arzoxifene and aromatase inhibitors such as
anastrozole and
exemestane – which have also shown promise but need further investigation.