Breast Cancer Prevention

Panel recommends breast cancer treatments as preventatives for women at high-risk. Medscape (3/30, Chustecka) reported, "An international group of breast cancer experts has called for more use of preventive therapy" with selective oestrogen-receptor modulators, such as tamoxifen and raloxifene, in women "who are at high risk for the disease." In a consensus statement in the Lancet Oncology, the "panel of experts recommends that all women whose risk of developing breast cancer over the next 10 years is more than 4% above average should be offered preventive therapy and closer monitoring." This would involve women who have a "family history of breast cancer" or who have dense breast tissue. Notably, women who have "density of more than 75% are at four- to five-times greater risk for breast cancer than women with the least dense breasts," the statement authors emphasized.