PJ Online | News: Raloxifene reduces cardiovascular events in older women at CHD risk

Home > PJ > News / Daily News | Search

The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7186 p233-237
23 February 2002

Raloxifene reduces cardiovascular events in older women at CHD risk

Raloxifene (Evista) reduces the risk of cardiovascular events in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis who are at increased risk of heart disease, researchers say.

Dr Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, University of California, San Diego, and colleagues analysed data from the Multiple Outcomes of Raloxifene Evaluation (MORE), a randomised, placebo-controlled trial designed to determine the effect of raloxifene on the risk of vertebral fractures in 7,705 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

They found that although raloxifene therapy given for four years did not affect the overall risk of cardiovascular events in the total study population, treatment was associated with a 40 per cent reduction in the risk of coronary and cerebrovascular events in woman at increased risk.

The researchers say: "Before raloxifene is used for the prevention of cardiovascular events, these findings require confirmation in trials with evaluation of cardiovascular outcomes as the primary objective." The study is published in JAMA (2002;287:847) and was funded by Eli Lilly & Co, manufacturer of raloxifene.

Raloxifene and breast cancer Raloxifene has no value in the treatment of advanced, tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer, the results of a study in mice suggest.

Researchers from Northwestern University, Chicago, and colleagues exposed human breast and endometrial tumours in mice to combinations of tamoxifen or raloxifene and oestrogen.

The researchers say that treatment with raloxifene following five years of tamoxifen therapy may not further decrease the recurrence of breast cancer. They add that neither drug blocked the stimulatory effects of oestrogen and that treatment with raloxifene after five years of tamoxifen therapy may increase the incidence of endometrial cancer (Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2002;94:274).