Taking tamoxifen for more than two years after surgery is only useful for young women with hormone sensitive breast cancer - 44% positive effect on 5-year mortality, not women with breast cancer at the age from the transfer effect was nihiel in this group of women.

October 28, 2005: Source: Medscape and Cancer 2005; 104

For young women with hormone sensitive breast cancer for the transition seems to continue after surgery with tamoxifen after two years makes sense, 44% fewer deaths from the use of tamoxifen for five-year measurement. For postmenopausal women say so in the age of 50 years and older will continue to tamoxifen after two years no positive result in the ultimate survival time and survival, the effect on the ultimate mortality rates after five years was nihiel. This shows a five-year randomized study of more than 1000 women who had clinical cancer after two years by such use of tamoxifen. The women were divided into two groups. One group stopped tamoxifen, the other group stayed for at least three years after tamoxifen use. These women are the next five years followed closely with these results. So does a clear and demonstrable positive effect in young women, older women, the difference in mortality is not. For clarity, a hormone therapy - treatment with tamoxifen is now more often replaced after two years and sometimes even at the start by Arimidex and / or Femara , but it is not investigated in this study.

Cancer 2005; 104

Benefits of Tamoxifen Use Not Apparent for Many Years

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Oct 25 - Compared with breast cancer patients who use tamoxifen for 2 years, Those who use it for 5 years are Unlikely to see Additional benefit on overall survival Until at least 9 years after diagnosis Their cancer, new research suggests . Over more, the benefits of longer use are largely confined to younger ER-positive women.
The Findings, Which Appear in the December 1st issue of Cancer, are based on a study of 1901 women with early stage disease who Were event-free after two years of tamoxifen therapy. Were the subjects then randomized to continuing or stopping the drug for three more years. After Several Years of follow-up, in ER-positive patients, the survival curves of the Shorter and longer duration tamoxifen groups Began to diverging, favorite ring the former group.
However, That Further analysis showed only ER-positive patients no older Than 55 Years benefited from longer duration therapy. In Such women, a 44% drop in mortality risk was seen, whereas no change was noted in older women.
The results support the use of longer duration tamoxifen in younger ER-positive women. However, due to statistical Limitations of the present study, the authors do not believe the present Findings definitively rule out longer-duration therapy in older women. For this, Further studies are Needed, They note.

Cancer 2005; 104.