Deep Venous Thrombosis in Breast Cancer Patients Using Tamoxifen, a Hypothesis

Meral Sayin, Bekir Hakan Bakkal

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DOI: 10.4236/jct.2011.25081                

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women and systematic therapy is an essential component of disease. Hormonal therapy, cytotoxic chemotherapy and the more recently introduced biological therapies are routinely employed in the vast majority of patients. Several pharmaceuticals that affect the estrogenic pathways have been studied as chemopreventive agents. Tamoxifen is an anti-estrogenic drug used in the treatment of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer patients. One of the important side-effects of tamoxifen is thromboembolic events like deep venous thrombosis. Tamoxifen also causes an increase in mean platelet volume. We hypothesize that thromboembolic effect of tamoxifen is via increase of mean platelet volume.

Keywords

Breast Cancer, Tamoxifen, Deep Venous Thrombosis, Hypothesis

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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