Tamoxifen

Excerpt

Tamoxifen is a selective estrogen receptor modulator used to treat breast cancer in various clinical settings. This drug is particularly effective for patients with estrogen receptor–positive tumors and is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in both females and males with breast cancer. Tamoxifen is also approved for various indications, including adjuvant therapy after surgery and radiation. Additional FDA-approved indications include the treatment of ductal carcinoma in situ in females, reducing the risk of invasive breast cancer, and breast cancer risk reduction in high-risk patients. Tamoxifen also has several off-label uses, some of which require further investigation. Tamoxifen exerts both estrogenic and anti-estrogenic effects depending on the tissue. The drug inhibits tumor growth in breast tissue while acting as an estrogen agonist in bone, which may help prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Tamoxifen is a first-line option for hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer and remains a key treatment for men with hormone receptor-positive disease.