Quimioprevención del cáncer de mama

the pharmacological prevention (chemoprevention) of breast cancer is the new challenge of modern medical oncology to deal with a kind of tumor that is the most frequent among the female population all over the world. the extension of the screening programs for early-stage detection and the advances in therapeutic pharmacology have achieved a continued reduction in breast cancer mortality in the last decade. however, the incidence rate continues increasing or is at least stable, what considered together with the increasing proportion of women in follow-up after completing the adjuvant treatment, leads to a continued increase of the medical and social burden of breast cancer. for this reason, the securing of an efficacious, safe and tolerated drug diminishing the tumor incidence is a very desirable objective. presently, once demonstrated that tamoxifen-mediated estrogenic inhibition can prevent the appearance of breast cancer, the research of the role of other serms (selective estrogen receptor modulators) and aromatase inhibitors is very active, looking for products having a favorable risk-benefit ratio that will make then useful for wide groups of population.