BMJ 1994;308:534 (19 February)

Letters

Safety of tamoxifen

EDITOR, - V Craig Jordan reports some of the preclinical toxicological findings on tamoxifen in his editorial.1 Though he states that tamoxifen "promotes hepatic tumours in rats," he fails to note that tamoxifen is a strong liver carcinogen by itself in rats, producing tumours within six months and a high incidence by one year at doses that yield blood concentrations comparable to those in treated women.2 In addition to causing the formation of DNA adducts in the liver of rats, which Jordan mentions, tamoxifen causes the formation of DNA adducts in the liver of hamsters and mice. This feature is characteristic of human carcinogens. In fact, tamoxifen is associated with increases in cancers of the endometrium3,4 and possibly liver3 in treated patients.

In answer to the question "Is tamoxifen safe?" Jordan compares the risk of tamoxifen with that of use of oral contraceptives on the basis of his conclusion that . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Safety of tamoxifen
V C Jordan
BMJ 1994 308: 1438. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Dodds, R., Dawson, D. (1995). Diabetes and breast feeding. BMJ 311: 877b-877 [Full text]  
  • Jordan, V C (1994). Safety of tamoxifen. BMJ 308: 1438-1438 [Full text]  
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