Cancer study enrolls 6,000 women
Six thousand in, 16,000 to go: A landmark breast-cancer prevention study has enrolled 6,139 postmenopausal women in its first year.
The Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene also has provided more than 47,000 women with an individualized, no-obligation risk assessment to determine their risk of breast cancer and weigh the pros and cons of joining the trial, which began enrollment in July 1999.
Many of these 47,000 women did not have an increased risk of breast cancer that would make them eligible for the trial. About 29,300 women were eligible for the trial based on breast cancer risk alone, but had to make the choice to participate based on their overall health and personal reasons.
“As of June 30, more than 136 women from Wisconsin are already participating in STAR, including 39 women at the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center in Madison and its participating subcenters,” says James Stewart, principal investigator.
“This trial has a 5-year recruitment plan, but we hope to accomplish this goal within the next 2 to 3 years and are encouraging all eligible women who live in the Dane County area to participate.”
STAR is designed to determine whether the osteoporosis prevention and treatment drug raloxifene (sold as Evista) is as effective as tamoxifen (Nolvadex) in reducing breast cancer risk.
In 1998, tamoxifen was shown to reduce the chance of developing breast cancer by about half in the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial, a study of more than 13,000 premenopausal and postmenopausal women at increased risk of breast cancer.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of tamoxifen to reduce the incidence of breast cancer in women at increased risk of the disease in October 1998. Raloxifene was shown to reduce the incidence of breast cancer in a large osteoporosis trial, the MORE study.
More than 500 centers across the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada are enrolling participants in STAR, which is supported by the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
Postmenopausal women in the Dane County area who are interested in participating in STAR can call the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center at (608) 262-5223 or 800-622-8922.
Tags: research