DURHAM, N.C., Oct. 11 (UPI) -- A North Carolina study found a slightly elevated risk of ischemic stroke due to a blood clot in the brain in patients treated with tamoxifen.
Tamoxifen is a drug commonly prescribed for preventing breast cancer and treating women with breast cancer.
However, the researchers at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., emphasize that the slight increase in risk does not mean that use of tamoxifen should be reduced, given the drug's considerable benefits, but that women should be screened for possible stroke risk before the drug is prescribed.
The findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Neurology.
Tamoxifen has been known to increase the risk of thromboembolism -- blockage of a blood vessel by a blood clot -- but its relationship to stroke risk has been unclear. The Duke team did a "meta-analysis" of tamoxifen research since 1980 in which patients were randomized to either tamoxifen versus placebo or tamoxifen versus other therapies.
"The absolute increase in risk of strokes in patients taking this drug is very small, but important," said lead author Dr. Cheryl Bushnell.
