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NEW YORK, Mar 19 (Reuters Health) - Preliminary study findings suggest that the breast cancer drug tamoxifen may turn back the clocks in the arteries of men with heart disease, according to a new report.
If the results seen in the current study are successful on a larger scale and without adverse side effects, this "could be a tremendous help in managing patients with heart problems," said Dr. Ann Bolger, a spokesperson for the American Heart Association and an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
In the first study of its kind, researchers in England took observational effects seen with tamoxifen--namely a reduction in heart attacks found in women taking the drug for breast cancer--a step further and investigated if a similar effect would be seen in men.
In the study, published in the March 20th issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, Sarah C. Clarke of the University of Cambridge, UK, and colleagues evaluated three different study groups. In the first group, 16 men with known plaque build-up and blockage in their heart arteries were given tamoxifen for 56 days. Another group of 15 men with known signs of heart disease similar to the men in the first group received no tamoxifen. Both of these groups were being treated with various drug therapies known to reduce heart disease. A third group of 10 men with chest pain symptoms but no signs of blocked arteries was also treated with tamoxifen for 56 days.
The investigators found that the main artery in the forearm of the men who were on tamoxifen for 56 days was better able to dilate (or expand) than those who did not receive tamoxifen. In the tamoxifen group, artery dilation was similar to a younger person who did not have hardening of the arteries. Men not taking tamoxifen saw relatively little change in the way their arteries behaved.
Tamoxifen also decreased several other heart disease risk factors including cholesterol, fatty triglycerides, lipoprotein-a and fibrinogen, the report indicates.
Tamoxifen is one of a family of drugs known as selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), that have estrogen-like effects in some tissues, but block the effects of estrogen in others.
One drawback of the study, cautioned Bolger, is the fact that the change in the arm artery does not directly measure what would happen in arteries in the heart.
"Will men taking tamoxifen see a reduction in heart attacks (as was observed observationally in women taking the drug)? That remains to be seen. But the results of this preliminary investigation warrant more studies," she said.
SOURCE: Circulation 2001;103.
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