Tamoxifen: Highly Potent Cause of Liver Cancer

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Tamoxifen: Highly Potent Cause of Liver Cancer

JoAnn Guest

Nov 06, 2004 20:24 PST

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Tamoxifen Prescribed to Healthy Women is a

Highly Potent Cause of Liver Cancer

 

The U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) encourages healthy

women to become " guinea pigs " for this highly profitable drug.

 

FDA Advisory Committee Urged To Reject Zeneca's Application of

Tamoxifen For Preventing Breast Cancer in Healthy Women;

Tamoxifen is Ineffective and Toxic

 

Press Release 9/1/98 PRNewswire -- The following was released today

by Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., Professor Environmental Medicine,

University of Illinois School of Public Health and Chairman of

Cancer Prevention Coalition;

Barbara Seaman, co-founder National Women's Health Network,

Washington, D.C.; and Ann Fonfa, the Annie Appleseed Project, New

York:

 

On September 2, FDA's Advisory Committee on Oncologic Drugs will

review Zeneca Pharmaceutical's New Drug Application (NDA) for

approval of tamoxifen " for the prevention of breast cancer in

(healthy) women at high risk. "

 

Claims that tamoxifen can prevent breast cancer are based on an

April 6, 1998 National Cancer Institute (NCI) preliminary report,

unsupported by a scientific publication, of a short term trial on

some 13,000 healthy women at " high risk " of breast cancer, including

women over the age of 60, who were randomly given tamoxifen or a

placebo; further details of the report are still not available to

the scientific community and the public.

 

The trial was terminated prematurely in view of the reduction in

the incidence of breast cancer in all tamoxifen treated age groups.

 

However, serious and sometimes fatal complications, including

uterine

cancer and pulmonary embolism, were seen in postmenopausal women

among whom the incidence of breast cancer was reduced by 1.7%, while

the incidence of serious complications was increased by 2.2% in

non-hysterectomized women.

 

The brevity of the trial prevented recognition of other delayed

serious health risks. Of particular concern is the fact

that tamoxifen is a highly potent carcinogen, inducing liver cancer

in

rats at low doses equivalent, based on blood levels, to those used

in the trial.

 

Disturbingly, women in the trial were not informed of the clear

evidence of these risks.

The absence of reported liver cancer in women treated with tamoxifen

for breast cancer is hardly reassuring as

relatively few women have been treated for over 5 years and followed

up for a further 20 years before which the development of liver

cancer would be most unlikely.

 

Additionally, there are serious questions as to whether tamoxifen

actually reduced the incidence of breast cancer or merely delayed

its onset by treating small undetected tumors. In fact, two articles

published on July 11, 1998 in the highly prestigious journal, The

Lancet, reported no evidence of breast cancer prevention by

tamoxifen in two major European trials.

 

In an August 17 written statement, which will be read into the

record at the September 2 Advisory Committee Hearing, Dr. Epstein

concluded:

 

" NCI's preliminary April 6 report on the prevention of breast

cancer by tamoxifen has still not yet been finalized and published

in a scientific journal.

 

The Advisory Committee should also consider the

propriety of Zeneca's NDA as it is based, in part, on data which

have not been made fully available to the public although the

underlying

(NCI) research was funded by the public.

 

Furthermore, the claimed evidence for chemoprevention has been

discredited by two subsequent scientific publications. Of as great

concern is the well documented evidence of short term life-

threatening complications, and also risks of delayed fatal

complications, evidence

for which has been trivialized and suppressed by NCI. Based on these

scientific and ethical considerations, the Advisory Committee is

urged to deny approval of Zeneca's NDA. "

 

Finally, the NDA poses further serious questions in view of Zeneca's

control and funding of the heavily promoted annual October National

Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

 

This campaign urges women to have mammography, in spite of its

highly questionable effectiveness and risks in premenopausal women,

while avoiding any reference to a wide range of

scientifically documented safe and effective methods for reducing

risks of breast cancer.

 

These include avoidance of prolonged and early onset

use of oral contraceptives; obesity and inactivity;and high fat and

dairy food products contaminated with carcinogenic and estrogenic

industrial chemicals. Such critical omissions are favorable to

Zeneca's efforts to influence public policy in favor of approval of

large scale tamoxifen chemoprevention, targeted for up to 30 million

U.S. women at " high risk " of breast cancer.

 

More…

 

Tamoxifen Side Effects: A Travesty…Los Angeles Times editorial

 

Chemical Companies Profiting from Tamoxifen

 

Drug Companies Push Tamoxifen, NBCAM

 

Carcinogenicity of Tamoxifen: New York Times letter

 

 

CONTACT:

 

Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine at the

University of Illinois School of Public Health, Chicago,and Chairman

of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, 312-996-2297; or Barbara Seaman

of the National Women's Health Network, 212-580-1838, or Ann Fonfa

of the Annie Appleseed Project, 212-869-0139

 

Web site: http://www.preventcancer.com/

_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

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