Even when she had metastatic disease she helped other women. I will never forget her. I was very excited. Excited by the new possibility this drug offered.
Tamoxifen is clearly an advance in the treatment of breast cancer.
Now it has been proven to be a chemopreventative as well. But as I began to look at the results some red flags went up. There were three deaths from pulmonary embolism in the tamoxifen arm and none in the placebo arm. The incidence of pulmonary embolism was 18 in the tamoxifen arm versus six in the placebo arm. Women also had an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis, endometrial cancer and stroke.