Assessment of the Potential Drug Etiology of Breast Cancer: Analyses of Data from a Case-Control Drug Surveillance Study

摘要

We explored the drug etiology of breast cancer through analyses of data from our hospital-based Case-Control Surveillance Study of medications and cancer. Over 5000 cases of incident breast cancer were included in these analyses. We carried out computer 'screens' to detect unsuspected associations, in which the use of each drug or drug class among women with breast cancer was compared with that among women with other conditions. The literature relevant to associations seen in the computer screen was reviewed. Inverse associations with heparin use and phenytoin use and a positive association with clomiphene citrate use may warrant further exploration. The relation of use of nonsteroidal anti- inflammatory drugs to breast cancer risk was assessed in detail and a manuscript was prepared: the results suggest little or no association. A detailed analysis of use of drugs that bind to intracellular histamine receptors in relation to breast cancer risk was conducted and a manuscript was prepared. There was a weak positive association of breast cancer risk with use of the newest class of antidepressants, the selective seratonin uptake inhibitors, but the results were not statistically significant. The use of tricyclic antidepressants, other antidepressants, phenothiazines, and antihistamines was unrelated to risk.