Tamoxifen

2 Pages 437 Words

TAMOXIFEN

1. Why shouldn’t everyone all women take the drug tamoxifen? Which

category of women may be helped? Why might “more women be harmed

than helped?

It couldn’t be determined which women were at high risk. It was not

sure that tamoxifen would not cure breast cancer “but prevent it.” Many

women have died or developed cancer of the uterine lining or blood clots.

2. How does tamoxifen work in the body?

It prevents the hormone estrogen from over stimulating breast tissue.

PATTERN AND OBSERVATION:

It prevents the hormone estrogen from over stimulating breast tissue.

PREDICTION:

If 85 women developed cancer when they took tamoxifen against

against 154 women who took a placebo.

Then: Tamoxifen should be given to the 154 who have developed

cancer.

EXPERIMENT:

Remove breast tissue from both category of women to see what is causing

the cancer.

PATTERN OF RESULTS: The % of women should be less in

developing breast cancer when tamoxifen is used.

4. What causes tamoxifen to develop blood clots or cancer of the uterine

lining in women.

5. Retest tamoxifen to find out what caused the lining of the uterus to be

cancerous in 33 women tested.


b. test the placebo to see what it contains that prevents less women to

develop breast cancer than when they used tamoxifen.

c. inject good tissue with cancerous cells to see if it develops cancer.

d. Does the lining of the uterus contain the same gene as breast tissue.

Hence the development of cancer of the uterine lining.


HERCEPTI N:


Herceptin should only be given to women with advanced breast cancer.


b. women with mestastic breast cancer whose tumors produced excessive

amounts of HER2 receptors.

OBSERVATION: Herceptin targets a special gene alteration linked to the

cancer.

HYPOTHESIS:

HERC...