More Women Needed for Trials of Chemotherapy as Breast Cancer Preventative

More women at high risk of breast cancer in the U.K. are needed for chemotherapy trials to assess the effectiveness of various preventive treatments, according to researchers from the Regional Clinical Genetic Service, St. Mary's Hospital in Manchester, England.

Appropriate treatment of women at a high risk of familial breast cancer is hampered because of limited research data on the various treatment options, according to the study published in The Lancet.

Over the past 8 years, women in north-west England who are at a high risk of developing breast cancer had the opportunity to participate in 2 chemoprevention trials, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study or a risk-reducing mastectomy study, according to Gareth Evans, co-author of the study.

Researchers have studied 4,475 women who are at a high risk of developing breast cancer. They found that entry into the MRI screening study was the preferred option and only 10 percent chose risk-reducing mastectomy or chemoprevention.

"While further evidence is necessary to prove the level of risk reduction with mastectomy in (BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene) carriers, it may prove very difficult to involve sufficient numbers of women at high risk in chemoprevention studies until randomization does not involve a placebo, and the treatment arm does not involve significant chances of unpleasant symptoms," said Evans.

"Design of the next definitive prevention study for women at high risk of developing breast cancer may need to consider randomization without a placebo and inclusion of tamoxifen, which is generally well tolerated," Evans said.

Other Sources: Lancet