Breast Cancer: Tamoxifen Saves Lives but Some Women Go Without It

For women diagnosed with hormone-sensitive breast cancer -- more than 150,000 in the U.S. each year -- five years of tamoxifen treatment can dramatically cut the risk of death or recurrence of the cancer, according to a study published Thursday in the medical journal The Lancet. Tamoxifen, a mainstay in breast cancer therapy since the early 1980s, blocks estrogen receptors to thwart the sex hormone's tumor-feeding effects. Doctors always knew it worked, but the Lancet study -- which included...Full Story