Evaluating the effect of Femara and Tamoxifen on serum lipids in early postmenopausal breastcancer patients.

Introduction: Treatment of breast cancer as the most common cancer in women is one the important concerns these days. Selective estrogen receptor modulators and type 2 aromatase inhibitor are used in the in the treatment of breast cancer patients. The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Femara (letrozole) and Tamoxifen on serum lipids in early postmenopausal breast cancer patients. Methods: This was a blind randomized clinical trial study which was performed on 84 menopause women with early breast cancer. Patients were included in 2009-2012 from Asia, Laleh, Javaheri hospitals in Tehran. Patients were randomly divided in Tamoxifen (41 patients) (20 mg/day) and Femara (43 patients) (2.5 mg/day) groups. All patients were followed for 12 months. This study was approved by research committee of Islamic Azad University, Tehran medical Branch. Results: Mean age in Tamoxifen group was 58.48 ± 6.56 years and mean age in Femara group was 56.18 + 5.86 years (P=0.628). Both medications had reduced serum total cholesterol and serum LDL but there was no significant difference between groups (P> 0.05). Femara decreased the HDL in 23% and tamoxifen decreased it by 3% (P = 0.001).Conclusion: Our evidence showed that according to Femara properties this drug could be used as an alternative option instead of tamoxifen in breast cancer patients. But according to our small sample size and short term flow up it seems that more randomized clinical trials are needed to confirm the results of this study and evaluate survival in these patients.

Keywords:

Breast cancer , Femara , Tamoxifen