SAN ANTONIO --- New research findings show that the osteoporosis preventive drug raloxifene (Evista®) reduces risk for newly diagnosed, invasive breast cancer -- potentially the most serious type of the disease-- by more than 60 percent.

Noted breast cancer researcher V. Craig Jordan will discuss these findings, which are the latest results from Eli Lilly and Company's ongoing studies of raloxifene, at the 21st San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio, Tex., on Saturday, Dec. 12.

Jordan, a professor of cancer pharmacology at Northwestern University Medical School, is also director of the Breast Cancer Research Program at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

Raloxifene is the first osteoporosis preventive drug to show reduction in the risk of breast cancer in clinical trials among women at average risk for developing breast cancer.

Over 10,000 postmenopausal women age 31 to 80 taking raloxifene for more than three years had a 63 percent reduction in the incidence of newly diagnosed, invasive breast cancers when compared to their counterparts taking placebo. These women also showed a 55 percent overall reduction in both newly diagnosed invasive and non-invasive breast cancer.

These data were gathered from 10 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled osteoporosis studies. The women were taking daily raloxifene therapy for a follow-up of 40 to 55 months. Mammograms were routinely performed on an annual or biannual basis in all placebo-controlled trials of at least 12-months' duration.

The data are an update from those Jordan presented earlier this year at the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The cancer preventive potential of raloxifene will be further explored in the upcoming Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR) trial, a landmark breast cancer prevention trial comparing the ability of tamoxifen and raloxifene
'"/>

Contact: Elizabeth Crown
e-crown@nwu.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University
11-Dec-1998