BMJ 1996;312:1036 (20 April)

Letters

Local research ethics committees should review their approval of prevention trial

EDITOR,--R D Bulbrook's editorial discusses who should take tamoxifen and for how long.1 The British aTTom (adjuvant tamoxifen treatment offer more) trial aims to recruit up to 20000 women with primary breast cancer. Many of these women could receive at least seven years' treatment with tamoxifen--two years more than the National Cancer Institute considers routinely advisable for American women on the basis of current evidence. Women invited to take part in this trial will need full and frank information in the light of growing concern about the risks of long term treatment with tamoxifen, which include endometrial cancer and, possibly, gastrointestinal cancer. Some subgroups of women with a good prognosis are not likely to benefit from tamoxifen, and there is a danger that a conflict of interest may arise between the need to individualise treatment for patients or to enter them into a trial that requires large numbers to provide . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Long term adjuvant therapy for primary breast cancer
R D Bulbrook
BMJ 1996 312: 389-390. [Extract] [Full Text]

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