http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_Breast_Cancer_Surprise.html Oh, boy...........
ATLANTA -- Final results from a big study comparing two drugs for preventing breast cancer in high-risk women reveal surprises that challenge the government's claim that one is clearly better.
The study compared the old standby, tamoxifen, to raloxifene, a newer drug so far approved only for preventing the bone disease osteoporosis. The government contends raloxifene is safer.
At a news conference in April, the National Cancer Institute, which paid for the $88 million study, said both drugs were equally effective at lowering the risk of serious forms of breast cancer. But raloxifene users had 36 percent fewer uterine cancers and 29 percent fewer blood clots, making it a safer choice, government researchers said.
However, data made public on Monday show that the uterine cancer results were not statistically significant. This means the actual number of cases differed so little that they could have happened by chance.