Abstract
Since tamoxifen was introduced as a treatment for breast cancer in the early 1970s several tens of thousands of patients worldwide have been treated with the drug. The introduction of long-term tamoxifen as an adjunct to primary surgery, particularly in patients with low-risk tumors, means that there will be a growing number of long-term survivors who have been exposed to the drug for several years. The absolute benefit with adjuvant treatment appears to be relatively small - although potentially clinically wortwhile - in low-risk subgroups. In this setting even relatively infrequent adverse side effects could potentially offset the treatment benefit. This may also apply to chemopreventive treatment in previously healthy women aimed at decreasing their risk of developing breast cancer.
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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg
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Rutqvist, L.E. (1993). Long-Term Toxicity of Tamoxifen. In: Senn, HJ., Gelber, R.D., Goldhirsch, A., Thürlimann, B. (eds) Adjuvant Therapy of Breast Cancer IV. Recent Results in Cancer Research, vol 127. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84745-5_34
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84745-5_34
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