text_1: Bone drug cuts risk of breast cancer
text_2: This article presents the preliminary results from STAR, a large clinical trial comparing tamoxifen and raloxifene in postmenopausal women at increased risk of breast cancer. The study found comparable reduction in breast cancer risk. While the article reported that for the women taking raloxifene, the incidence of uterine cancer, blood clots, and cataracts were less than the women taking tamoxifen, only the difference in cataract was statically significant. This oversight is major as the incidence of uterine cancer and blood clots may be among the factors a woman considers when deciding which, if either breast cancer risk treatment option, is right for her. The other big omission is that the comparability in breast cancer reduction is only for invasive breast cancer; tamoxifen reduced the risk of less aggressive breast cancer (i.e. ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) while raloxifene did not. If the risks for all breast cancer events had been compared, the reported outcome of the study may have differed.