THURSDAY, May 4, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Postmenopausal women who took the vitamin A derivative fenretinide daily for five years after breast cancer surgery to help prevent tumor recurrence actually experienced a 23 percent higher rate of recurrence in the previously unaffected breast, compared to women not taking the drug.
So concludes a re-analysis of data from a 15-year study of 2,800 European women.
On the other hand, the Italian researchers behind the study found that the drug lowered the long-term risk for breast cancer recurrence among younger, premenopausal women by about 38 percent.
Rates for distant metastases -- cancers that recurred in body sites other than the breast -- were similar for women taking either fenretinide or a placebo.
The findings appeared in the May 4 online issue of the Annals of Oncology.
Fenretinide, which is not approved for use in preventing breast cancer in the United States, has had a controversial history. When the results of the first 11 years of the trial were published in 1999, experts labeled the findings inconclusive at best. The drug was also linked to an increased risk for nightblindness in some users.
Still, the positive results of the drug in younger, premenopausal women "provides a rationale for a new trial in younger women at high risk of breast cancer," lead researcher Professor Umberto Veronesi, of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan, said in a prepared statement. He said his group is currently planning such a trial if and when funding becomes available.
But Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, noted that both young and older breast cancer survivors in the United States routinely take tamoxifen to reduce their risk for cancer recurrence, "and it has a risk-reduction benefit of about 50 percent." He also noted that the women in the Italian study did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy after their surgeries to help cut their risk for recurrence -- something that routinely happens in the United States.
More information
For more on breast cancer, head to the American Cancer Society.
