Despite the proven efficacy of tamoxifen (T) in breast cancer prevention, its uptake remains limited due to concerns over side effects. A phase III trial showed that low-dose T (5 mg/day for 3 years) significantly reduces recurrence with minimal toxicity. After 10 years of follow-up, we observed no significant differences in benign gynecological or breast events between the tamoxifen and placebo (P) arms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer Causes Control
July 2025
Purpose: Coffee and tea intake has been suggested to favourably affect survival of cancer patients, but studies published so far produced conflicting results. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to summarize the existing evidence on the association between coffee and tea consumption and cancer survival across different types of cancers.
Methods: We included 26 prospective studies (1993-2023) involving over 40,000 cancer patients from North America, Europe, and Asia.
Purpose: Low-dose tamoxifen 5 mg/day (babytam) for 3 years can decrease the incidence of new breast cancer events in women with breast intraepithelial neoplasia by 42% with limited toxicity, which provides a new treatment option for these disorders. However, predictive biomarkers of babytam efficacy are lacking. We studied whether baseline levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-I), IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), estradiol, and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and their ratios predict babytam efficacy on breast cancer events in a preplanned secondary analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWomen carrying pathogenic/likely pathogenic (P/LP) variants in moderate- or high-penetrance genes have an increased risk of developing breast cancer. However, most P/LP variants associated with breast cancer risk show incomplete penetrance. Age, gender, family history, polygenic risk, lifestyle, reproductive, hormonal, and environmental factors can affect the expressivity and penetrance of the disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLynch syndrome is a genetic condition predisposing to cancer, particularly colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer, due to germline mutations in MisMatch Repair genes. More rarely, Lynch syndrome is the result of a constitutional promoter methylation. This review summarizes the current knowledge about the role of this epigenetic mechanism in the Lynch syndrome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
September 2024
Background: Breast Cancer (BC) prevention strategies range from lifestyle changes such as increasing physical activity and reducing body weight to preventive drugs like tamoxifen, known to reduce BC incidence in high-risk women. Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) is related to BC risk due to its ability to bind circulating estradiol at high affinity and to regulate estradiol action. A study protocol is presented based on the assessment of the effect of different interventions such as tamoxifen at 10 mg every other day (LDT), intermittent caloric restriction (ICR) two days per week, lifestyle intervention (LI, step counter use) and their combination on the modulation of SHBG and several other biomarkers associated to BC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Natl Cancer Inst
December 2024
The drug's activity at the target tissue could help to define the minimal effective dose to promote cancer preventive therapy. Here we present exemestane and sex hormone concentrations within breast tissue from a presurgical study of alternative exemestane schedules. Postmenopausal women candidates for breast surgery for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer were randomly assigned to exemestane 25 mg once daily (QD), 25 mg 3 times/week (TIW), or 25 mg per week (QW) for 4-6 weeks before surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Fenretinide, a retinoid with a low-toxicity profile that accumulates in the breast, has been shown to prevent second breast cancer in young women. Fenretinide exhibits apoptotic and antiinvasive properties and it improves insulin sensitivity in overweight premenopausal women with insulin resistance. This study aimed to further characterize its role in cancer prevention by measuring circulating biomarkers related to insulin sensitivity and breast cancer risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn a 3-arm presurgical trial, four-six weeks exemestane 25 mg three times/week (TIW) was non-inferior to 25 mg/day (QD) in suppressing circulating estradiol in postmenopausal women with ER-positive breast cancer. Since obesity may decrease exemestane efficacy, we analyzed changes in sex steroids, adipokines, Ki-67, and drug levels in relation to obesity. Postmenopausal women with early-stage ER-positive breast cancer were randomized to either exemestane 25 mg QD (n = 57), 25 mg TIW (n = 57), or 25 mg/week (QW, n = 62) for 4-6 weeks before breast surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccording to the latest estimate from GLOBOCAN 2020, approximately 18 [...
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFemale breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy worldwide. Risk assessment helps to identify women at increased risk of breast cancer and allows the adoption of a comprehensive approach to reducing breast cancer incidence through personalized interventions, including lifestyle modification, chemoprevention, intensified surveillance with breast imaging, genetic counseling, and testing. Primary prevention means acting on modifiable risk factors to reduce breast cancer occurrence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVitamin D and a healthy diet, based on World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) recommendations, are considered key elements for colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention. In a CRC case-control study, we observed that CRC cases were often significantly Vitamin D deficient while subjects following WCRF recommendations significantly decreased their risk of developing CRC. We conducted a randomized phase-II trial (EudraCT number-2015-000467-14) where 74 CRC patients showed differences in response to Vitamin D supplementation, 2000 IU in average per day, according to gender and microbiota.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGastric cancer (GC) has long been a 'Cinderella' among hereditary cancers. Until recently, single-gene testing (SGT) was the only approach to identify high-risk individuals. With the spread of multigene panel testing (MGPT), a debate arose on the involvement of other genes, particularly those pertaining to homologous recombination (HR) repair.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Successful therapeutic cancer prevention requires definition of the minimal effective dose. Aromatase inhibitors decrease breast cancer incidence in high-risk women, but use in prevention and compliance in adjuvant settings are hampered by adverse events.
Objective: To compare the noninferiority percentage change of estradiol in postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer given exemestane, 25 mg, 3 times weekly or once weekly vs a standard daily dose with a noninferiority margin of -6%.
Purpose: Five-year data of the phase III trial TAM-01 showed that low-dose tamoxifen at 5 mg once daily administered for 3 years in women with intraepithelial neoplasia (IEN) reduced by 52% the recurrence of invasive breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), without additional adverse events over placebo. Here, we present the 10-year results.
Methods: We randomly assigned 500 women with breast IEN (atypical ductal hyperplasia, lobular carcinoma in situ [LCIS], or hormone-sensitive or unknown DCIS) to low-dose tamoxifen or placebo after surgery with or without irradiation.
Background: Several studies suggest a role of gut microbiota in colorectal cancer (CRC) initiation and progression. Vitamin D (vitD) blood levels are also inversely correlated with CRC risk and prognosis. However, these factors' interplay remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe recently read the article by Colletti et al. [..
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer prevention in the era of precision medicine has to consider integrated therapeutic approaches. Therapeutic cancer prevention should be offered to selected cohorts with increased cancer risk. Undoubtedly, carriers of hereditary cancer syndromes have a well-defined high cancer risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent evidence has shown a number of extra-skeletal functions of Vitamin D (VD), primarily involving the immune system. One of these functions is mediated by the modulation of gut microbiota, whose alterations are linked to many diseases. Our purpose is to contribute to the understanding of existing evidence on the association between VD and gastrointestinal microbiota alterations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Aromatase inhibitors are effective in lowering breast cancer incidence among postmenopausal women, but adverse events represent a barrier to their acceptability and adherence as a preventive treatment. This study aims to assess whether lowering exemestane schedule may retain biological activity while improving tolerability in breast cancer patients.
Methods/design: We are conducting a, pre-surgical, non-inferiority phase IIb study in postmenopausal women with newly diagnosed estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.
There appears to be a sex-specific association between obesity and colorectal neoplasia in patients with Lynch Syndrome (LS). We meta-analyzed studies reporting on obesity and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in LS patients to test whether obese subjects were at increased risk of cancer compared to those of normal weight. We explored also a possible sex-specific relationship between adiposity and CRC risk among patients with LS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLow 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) has been associated with an increased cancer incidence and poorer prognosis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of vitamin D receptor (VDR) and vitamin D binding protein (GC gene) may interfere with vitamin D activity. This study assesses the role of VDR and GC SNPs on breast cancer (BC) recurrence and survival in a cohort of patients with a family history of breast cancer, without the pathogenic variant for BRCA1 and BRCA2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLow-dose tamoxifen halves recurrence in non-invasive breast cancer without significant adverse events. Some adjuvant trials with tamoxifen 20 mg/day had shown an association between low endoxifen levels (9-16 nM) and recurrence, but no association with CYP2D6 was shown in the NSABP P1 and P2 prevention trials. We studied the association of CYP2D6 genotype and tamoxifen metabolites with tumor biomarkers and recurrence in a randomized phase III trial of low-dose tamoxifen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Low-dose tamoxifen halved recurrence after surgery in a phase III trial in breast noninvasive disease without increasing adverse events. We explored the effect of low-dose tamoxifen in clinically relevant subgroups, including menopausal status, estradiol levels, smoking, body mass index, and proliferation of baseline lesion.
Patients And Methods: Incidence of invasive breast cancer or ductal carcinoma was the primary endpoint.