ABSTRACT
A woman who has breast cancer is put in the unenviable position of having to decide which of the treatment regimes she is willing to undergo in order to achieve arrest of her disease. When it comes to therapeutic agents for which there are serious side effects and controversy concerning efficacy, the problem becomes very difficult. Tamoxifen was developed by London-based Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), one of the worlds largest and most successful multinational chemical corporations. Chemically, tamoxifen is a member of the stil bene or substituted-diethyl-ene family, differing little from its chemical cousins diethylstilbestrol (DES) and clomiphene, known to be structurally related by ICI scientists. From the time of Hippocrates, the aim of medicine has been to place caution first and do no harm. Such costly ventures as promoting drugs to block hormones in healthy women diverts attention, scarce resources, and funding away from preventing cancer in the first place.
