Tamoxifen is a drug that is designed to prevent the growth of breast cancer in a woman's body by blocking her body's production of the hormone oestrogen, which is one of the primary hormones that produce new cells in her breasts.  By stopping the production of all new breast cell tissue, Tamoxifen stops the production of new cancerous breast tissues cells.  The fact that Tamoxifen stops the production of oestrogen can impact other areas of a woman's body besides the breasts, and so the makers of Tamoxifen have created a way for the drug to provide a low level of estrogen replacement therapy that protects women who are taking it from the negative effects of oestrogen loss during the course of their cancer treatment.  In fact, Tamoxifen has been so successful at providing low level estrogen replacement therapy to other parts of the body in breast cancer patients that scientists are testing it as a treatment for osteoporosis and some other diseases associated with estrogen loss.

Hormone therapy is one of the most promising new areas of research that scientists and doctors are pursuing as part of their search for the cure to the worldwide epidemic known as breast cancer.  Hormone therapy may even hold the key to preventing breast cancer in some cases, and it is being used in that capacity in some limited trail studies which so far have shown very high levels of success.  Indeed, hormone therapy may hold the key to curing and preventing many kinds of cancer.  The more we learn about hormone therapy and the role that hormones play in preventing and promoting disease, the better equipped we will be to end the worldwide epidemic known as breast cancer.

Although hormone therapy is one of the most promising tools that we can wield to fight the worldwide epidemic known as breast cancer, hormone therapy is still a relatively new idea, and has only fairly recently been used to fight the worldwide epidemic known as breast cancer.  Because hormone therapy is a new tool in the arsenal against the worldwide epidemic known as breast cancer, the long-term effects of drugs like Tamoxifen are still to some extent unknown.  In fact, some studies have shown that Tamoxifen increases the risk of developing uterine cancer.  Ironically, these studies introduce the possibility that hormone replacement therapy may stop one kind of cancer from spreading while laying the groundwork for a new kind of cancer to develop.

Hormone therapy is already among the most important weapons we have to fight the worldwide epidemic known as breast cancer, but there is a lot of work to be done before we can consider hormone therapy treatments like Tamoxifen to be cures for the worldwide epidemic known as breast cancer.  Until Tamoxifen and drugs like it have been in use for a very long time, it will remain almost impossible to know what their real long term effects are, and whether they help the patient in the long term or not.  The scientists and doctors who are exploring the world of hormone replacement therapy have many years of hard work ahead of them before they can announce the imminent end of the worldwide epidemic known as breast cancer.