Discoveries
Patients credited for success of major cancer prevention study
Judy Garber, MD, MPH
The announcement of results from the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR) grabbed headlines around the world earlier this year. The study found that the osteoporosis drug raloxifene works as well as another medicine, tamoxifen, in reducing the chances of breast cancer ocurrence in postmenopausal women at increased risk for the disease — and with fewer side effects. Nearly 20,000 women in the United States and Canada took part in the trial, including 226 at eight New England hospitals coordinated by Dana-Farber.
"People who participate in cancer prevention trials contribute something vital," says Judy Garber, MD, MPH, director of the Friends of Dana-Farber Cancer Risk and Prevention Clinic, who led the Institute's involvement in the study. "Many of the women in the STAR trial will never directly benefit from its findings; they enrolled for the sake of the generations of women who come after them."
The study, organized by the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project, also reflects on the work of staff members at the 500-plus participating hospitals and health centers, Garber notes.
"The climate of breast cancer prevention is undergoing a change, in part as a response to studies like STAR," she continues. "We hope people will begin to think of breast cancer prevention in the same way that they think of taking a statin [cholesterol-lowering] drug to prevent heart disease. This study is a big step forward in establishing what women may think of as a normal part of their health care."
