Abstract
Background
To investigate whether tamoxifen therapy has a favorable effect on plasma lipids, serum cholesterol levels were measured in 228 Japanese women with breast cancer (116 premenopausal women and 112 postmenopausal women).
Methods
These women were treated with tamoxifen or tamoxifen+chemotherapy (tamoxifen-treated group) or were given no therapy or chemotherapy alone (control group).
Results
There was no difference between cholesterol levels before treatment and after a 2-year follow-up period in these groups, except for the postmenopausal tamoxifen-treated group. In this particular group, the mean levels of serum cholesterol after 1 and 2 years of follow-up (197 and 188 mg/dL, respectively) were 8% and 12% lower than those before treatment (215 mg/dL,P<0.0001). In addition, the mean level of serum cholesterol after a 2-year follow-up period was significantly higher in the postmenopausal tamoxifen-treated group than in the postmenopausal control group (218 and 188 mg/dL, respectively,P=0.0066).
Conclusions
In multiple regression models that included age, body mass index, and chemohormonal therapy, only tamoxifen treatment appeared to predict the change between cholesterol levels before treatment and after 2-year follow-up in postmenopausal women. These results suggest that tamoxifen has the potential benefit of reducing the serum cholesterol level, which may be closely related to cardiovascular risk, in Japanese postmenopausal women.
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Imoto, S. Effect of tamoxifen on serum cholesterol in Japanese women with breast cancer. Int J Clin Oncol 3, 88–92 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02492853
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02492853