In a small but significant number of breast cancer patients, cancerous cells can move through the bloodstream from breast tissue to secondary sites in other parts of the body where they may remain in a dormant state, clinically undetected, for an extended period of time, before suddenly becoming metastatic. …
The Guardian newspaper published an interview with Michael Douglas on Sunday, in which the 68-year-old actor said his throat cancer hadn’t been caused by drinking or smoking – but by having oral sex. “Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus,” Douglas told the British newspaper.  Douglas also went on to speculate that the stress of his son Cameron’s incarceration might have helped trigger the cancer as well. While a representative for Douglas maintains the actor did not specifically say oral sex was the cause of his cancer, the conversation still begs the question: Does having oral sex play a role in the development of oral cancer? While a connection between the two may seem bizarre, it is very possible that some oral cancers are the end result of intimate sexual contact. Rates of oral cancer – sometimes referred to as head and neck cancers – have been on the rise over the past decade.  While the main risk factors for oral cancers typically include drinking alcohol and smoking, around 25 percent of mouth and 35 percent of throat cancers are related to human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. “(HPV) is present within the fluids that are part of oral sexual behavior,” Dr. Marshall Posner, director of the head and neck oncology program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, told FoxNews.com. “The vaginal fluids and semen will contain epithelial cells that have the virus on them and also free viral particles that can cause infection.” HPV cannot be transmitted through blood contact, but Posner said it may be possible to contract the virus from the direct contact of fluids through kissing. This can occur if an individual kisses someone who previously performed oral sex on someone else who had the virus. “If the virus is present in the oral pharynx and if it gets secreted in the saliva, then the saliva will contain potentially dangerous viral particles,” Posner said. There are more than 100 different types of HPV, and nearly everyone contracts some form of the virus in their youth.  Fortunately, the majority of HPV strains do not cause any symptoms, and in 90 percent of cases, the infection is naturally eradicated from the body within two years. However, some HPV types can cause genital warts, while others may lead to certain cancers in rare cases. HPV 16 and HPV 18 – which are sexually transmitted – are most closely associated with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer. According to Posner, 3 percent of adult males and 1 percent of adult females will have detectable HPV 16 in their saliva at any given moment in time.  However, just because HPV is detected in a sample of someone with oral cancer does not necessarily mean HPV caused the cancer.  According to the National Health Service in Britain, the virus becomes part of the pre-existing cancer cells’ genetic material, fostering the cells to grow. Oropharyngeal cancer symptoms include a lump in the back of the throat or mouth, pain in the ear or back of tongue, and difficulty swallowing. While the prognosis for HPV-negative oropharyngeal cancer is around 40 to 50 percent, the survival outcomes are generally better for HPV-positive cancers, ranging from 80 to 95 percent.  However, that prognosis is affected by drinking and smoking, which may have been a problem for Douglas. In the United States, HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer represents 60 percent of the total number of orapharyngeal cancer cases, which equal to about 15,000 per year.  Posner estimated that those cases will increase to 20,000 a year by the year 2015. While researchers cannot fully explain the rising rates of these cancers, one of the biggest risk factor for contracting HPV-positive oroharyngeal cancer includes having a high number of sexual partners, Posner said. “In smoking cigarettes and cancer, it doesn’t matter what brands you smoked, it matters how many you smoked,” Posner said.  “With HPV, it’s about the number of ‘brands’ you’ve been involved with. If you have numerous partners, you have a much higher risk of developing cancer. So (monogamous) people should go ahead and have the same intimate and personal relationship that they have with their partners and not be worried about it.” For those looking to protect themselves from contracting dangerous forms of HPV, practicing safe sex by using protection such as condoms and dental dams may help to diminish the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.  Posner also called for parents to get their children – including young boys –vaccinated against HPV. “I think people should make every effort to have children vaccinated, so I don’t have to treat this in the future,” Posner said.  I think it’s very important and to cure cancer we have to support research – it’s the best way we have to figure out how to cure this. Click to learn more about HPV from Mount Sinai Hospital.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/michael-douglass-reveal-can-get-throat-cancer-from-oral-sex/
Michael Douglas made a shocking announcement on Sunday, maintaining that his throat cancer hadn’t been caused by drinking or smoking – but by having oral sex. “Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus,” Douglas told The Guardian newspaper.  The 68-year-old actor also went on to speculate that the stress of his son Cameron’s incarceration might have helped trigger the cancer as well. While a connection between oral sex and cancer may seem bizarre, it is very possible that some oral cancers are the end result of intimate sexual contact. Rates of oral cancer – sometimes referred to as head and neck cancers – have been on the rise over the past decade.  While the main risk factors for oral cancers typically include drinking alcohol and smoking, around 25 percent of mouth and 35 percent of throat cancers are related to human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. “(HPV) is present within the fluids that are part of oral sexual behavior,” Dr. Marshall Posner, director of the head and neck oncology program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, told FoxNews.com. “The vaginal fluids and semen will contain epithelial cells that have the virus on them and also free viral particles that can cause infection.” HPV cannot be transmitted through blood contact, but Posner said it may be possible to contract the virus from the direct contact of fluids through kissing. This can occur if an individual kisses someone who previously performed oral sex on someone else who had the virus. “If the virus is present in the oral pharynx and if it gets secreted in the saliva, then the saliva will contain potentially dangerous viral particles,” Posner said. There are more than 100 different types of HPV, and nearly everyone contracts some form of the virus in their youth.  Fortunately, the majority of HPV strains do not cause any symptoms, and in 90 percent of cases, the infection is naturally eradicated from the body within two years. However, some HPV types can cause genital warts, while others may lead to certain cancers in rare cases. HPV 16 and HPV 18 – which are sexually transmitted – are most closely associated with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer. According to Posner, 3 percent of adult males and 1 percent of adult females will have detectable HPV 16 in their saliva at any given moment in time.  However, just because HPV is detected in a sample of someone with oral cancer does not necessarily mean HPV caused the cancer.  According to the National Health Service in Britain, the virus becomes part of the pre-existing cancer cells’ genetic material, fostering the cells to grow. Oropharyngeal cancer symptoms include a lump in the back of the throat or mouth, pain in the ear or back of tongue, and difficulty swallowing. While the prognosis for HPV-negative oropharyngeal cancer is around 40 to 50 percent, the survival outcomes are generally better for HPV-positive cancers, ranging from 80 to 95 percent.  However, that prognosis is affected by drinking and smoking, which may have been a problem for Douglas. In the United States, HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer represents 60 percent of the total number of orapharyngeal cancer cases, which equal to about 15,000 per year.  Posner estimated that those cases will increase to 20,000 a year by the year 2015. While researchers cannot fully explain the rising rates of these cancers, one of the biggest risk factor for contracting HPV-positive oroharyngeal cancer includes having a high number of sexual partners, Posner said. “In smoking cigarettes and cancer, it doesn’t matter what brands you smoked, it matters how many you smoked,” Posner said.  “With HPV, it’s about the number of ‘brands’ you’ve been involved with. If you have numerous partners, you have a much higher risk of developing cancer. So (monogamous) people should go ahead and have the same intimate and personal relationship that they have with their partners and not be worried about it.” For those looking to protect themselves from contracting dangerous forms of HPV, practicing safe sex by using protection such as condoms and dental dams may help to diminish the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.  Posner also called for parents to get their children – including young boys –vaccinated against HPV. “I think people should make every effort to have children vaccinated, so I don’t have to treat this in the future,” Posner said.  I think it’s very important and to cure cancer we have to support research – it’s the best way we have to figure out how to cure this. Click to learn more about HPV from Mount Sinai Hospital.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/michael-douglass-reveal-can-get-throat-cancer-from-oral-sex/
Three people were being treated Saturday for a new respiratory virus that is alarming global health officials, in the first cases in Italy, says the country's health ministry. A 45-year-old man who had recently returned from a 40-day visit to Jordan was hospitalized in Tuscany with a high fever, cough and respiratory problems, says the ministry. Tuscan regional officials say that a young child who is related to the man and a work colleague also have the virus, the ministry said. All three patients were reported to be in good condition and were being treated in isolation. The virus is related to SARS, which killed about 800 people in a global epidemic in 2003. The U.N. health agency said earlier Saturday that it had been informed of 51 confirmed cases of the new virus since September. Thirty of those cases were fatal, including that of a Frenchman who died earlier in the week. Cases in Britain and Germany also have been reported. Most of those infected had traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/deadly-mers-virus-spreads-to-italy/
Gene flaws that raise the risk of breast cancer are surprisingly common in black women with the disease, according to the first comprehensive testing in this racial group. The study found that one-fifth of these women have BRCA mutations, a problem usually associated with women of Eastern European Jewish descent but recently highlighted by the plight of Angelina Jolie. The study may help explain why black women have higher rates of breast cancer at young ages - and a worse chance of survival. Doctors say these patients should be offered genetic counseling and may want to consider more frequent screening and prevention options, which can range from hormone-blocking pills to breast removal, as Jolie chose to do. “We were surprised at our results,” said the study leader, Dr. Jane Churpek, a cancer specialist at the University of Chicago. Too few black women have been included in genetic studies in the past and most have not looked for mutations to the degree this one did, “so we just don't have a good sense” of how much risk there is, she said. Churpek gave results of the study Monday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago. The researchers include Mary-Claire King, the University of Washington scientist who discovered the first breast cancer predisposition gene, BRCA1. Jolie revealed a few weeks ago that she carries a defective BRCA1 gene, giving her up to an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer and up to a 54 percent risk for ovarian cancer. The actress's mother had breast cancer and died of ovarian cancer, and her maternal grandmother also had ovarian cancer. An aunt recently died of breast cancer. Children of someone with a BRCA mutation have a 50 percent chance of inheriting it. In the U.S., about 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers are thought to be due to bad BRCA genes. Among breast cancer patients, BRCA mutations are carried by 5 percent of whites and 12 percent of Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jews. The rates in other groups are not as well known. The study involved 249 black breast cancer patients from Chicago area hospitals. Many had breast cancer at a young age, and half had a family history of the disease. They were given complete gene sequencing for all 18 known breast cancer risk genes rather than the usual tests that just look for a few specific mutations in BRCA genes. Gene flaws were found in 56, or 22 percent, of study participants; 46 of them involved BRCA1 or BRCA2 and the rest were less commonly mutated genes. Harmful mutations were found in 30 percent of black women with “triple-negative breast cancer” - tumors whose growth is not fueled by estrogen, progesterone or the gene that the drug Herceptin targets. Doctors have long known that these harder-to-treat cases are more common in black women. The National Cancer Institute, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Komen for the Cure paid for the study. It included many younger women and those with a family history of cancer, and they are known to have higher rates of gene mutations that raise risk, said Rebecca Nagy, a genetics counselor at Ohio State University and president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. Still, “it has always stumped us” to see black families with lots of breast cancer but no mutations that can be found in ordinary testing for BRCA genes, she said. That was the situation for Alicia Cook, 44, a Chicago woman whose grandmother died of breast cancer, mother died of ovarian cancer and two sisters have had breast cancer. When she was first diagnosed with breast cancer nearly 10 years ago, a test for BRCA mutations was negative. Doctors said, “I'm sure there's something going on genetically” but they didn't have the tools to find it, Cook said. Last year, she had a recurrence and a sister who was diagnosed with the disease learned she carried a BRCA1 mutation. Cook was retested for the same mutation and found to have it. Now she is telling her relatives in hopes that more of them will seek genetic counseling and be aware of their risk. “You don't want to put people in fear, but knowledge is power,” she said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/gene-flaws-common-in-black-women-with-breast-cancer/
The results were presented at the 2013 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology today in Chicago by Dr. Antoni Ribas, professor of medicine in the UCLA division of hematology-oncology, who led the research. Following Ribas’ presentation, the study was published online ahead of press in the New England Journal of Medicine. The results are from the first clinical trial of the drug lambrolizumab (MK3475), which was discovered and developed by Merck…
In the largest study of oncologists to quantify the toll of the cancer drug shortage to date, the research team surveyed a random sample of 500 board-certified U.S. …
When Elena Skoko gave birth to her daughter three years ago, she felt pain. But she also felt something else: waves of pleasure so ecstatic they compared to an orgasm. “I had this wavy sensation of blissful waves going through me,” said Skoko, a singer and author of “Memoirs of a Singing Birth” (lulu.com, 2012). Though childbirth is frequently spoken of in terms of pain and punishment, some women do experience what are known as orgasmic or ecstatic births. A new survey, available online May 3 in the journal Sexologies, finds that midwives report witnessing orgasms in about 0.3 percent of births. Anatomically, orgasmic birth is no surprise, said Barry Komisaruk, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey who studies orgasm. In fact, the intense stimulation of the vaginal canal in childbirth may work to block pain whether that stimulation is felt as sexual or not. [Awkward Anatomy: 10 Odd Facts About the Female Body] Orgasmic birth: Yes, really Anecdotal reports of orgasm during birth have long circulated in the natural childbirth community. These reports reached perhaps their widest audience yet in 2009 with the documentary “Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret,” directed by childbirth educator Debra Pascali-Bonaro. People are often skeptical of the concept of pleasure during birth, Pascali-Bonaro told LiveScience. Some see the idea of sexual feelings during childbirth as unacceptable, she said. “People see 'birth' and 'orgasmic' together on paper, and it pushes all their buttons on sexuality,” Pascali-Bonaro said. In addition, she said, many women in America give birth in settings where they aren't able to move around freely because of fetal monitoring devices, where they have little labor support and where they aren't allowed water to drink in case of a C-section (food and beverages aren't permitted before surgery). All of these limitations make a pleasurable birth experience less likely and less imaginable for women who've had babies, she said. The new study, conducted by psychologist Thierry Postel of Blainville-sur-Mer, France, is among the first to try to put hard numbers on how many women experience moments of ecstasy in birth. Postel contacted 956 French midwives, asking them to complete an online questionnaire about orgasmic birth. He got 109 complete responses for midwives, who, combined, had assisted 206,000 births in their careers. Postel focused on midwives rather than doctors or nurses, because midwives witness many births firsthand and are reliable observers, he wrote. He also asked midwives to forward the surveys to recent mothers if they saw fit. The results “established the fact that obstetrical pleasure exists,” Postel wrote. Midwives reported 668 cases in which mothers told midwives they'd felt orgasmic sensations in birth. In another 868 cases, midwives said they'd seen mothers demonstrate signs of pleasure during childbirth. Finally, nine mothers completed questionnaires confirming they'd experienced an orgasm during birth. If anything, Pascali-Bonaro said, the survey likely underestimates the number of women who've experienced pleasure in birth by asking primarily midwives rather than mothers about their experiences. In one screening of her film, Pascali-Bonaro said an obstetrician stood up to say he'd never witnessed anything remotely orgasmic in his years of delivering babies. “Three rows behind him a woman jumped up and said, 'Doctor, I gave birth with you three years ago, and I had a very orgasmic birth, with an orgasm, but what makes you think I would tell you?'” Pascali-Bonaro said. The anatomy of orgasmic birth Skeptics of orgasmic birth abound “I've also heard that men can enjoy a similar experience by having an intimate encounter with a 20-ton press,” a commenter appropriately named “Skeptic” posted on a 2008 New York Times article about Pascali-Bonaro's movie. But research suggests that orgasm during birth comes down to simple anatomy. “It's stimulation of the birth canal, stimulation of the cervix, the vagina and the clitoris and uterine contractions,” Komisaruk told LiveScience. “A lot of women say during sexual orgasms uterine contractions feel pleasurable.” Every woman's anatomy is different, Komisaruk said, so some women may experience pleasure during childbirth while others feel only the pain. [5 Surprising Facts About Pain] “There are so many factors that could make the difference between a pleasurable response and a terribly stressful, aversive experience that you can't generalize it,” he said. “There's no reason to try to generalize. Different people have different pain thresholds. Different people have different attitudes. If a woman has a fear of sexuality, if she starts having a pleasurable sensation she may feel this is completely inappropriate psychologically, and that itself could be an aversive effect.” In other words: No pressure. “Our message is not at all that this should be a performance standard,” Pascali-Bonaro said. Rather, she said, her goal is to see women given the full range of options for birth and the support they need to experience moments of joy and bliss during the process. The science of pain and pleasure Whether or not orgasmic birth is in the cards, the anatomy involved brings good news for laboring women. Komisaruk and his colleagues have found that sexual stimulation and orgasm reduce sensitivity to pain. (Sex can even cure migraines, according to a March 2013 study.) In 1988, Komisaruk and his co-researchers published a study in the Journal of Sex Research that found when women stimulated their vaginas or clitorises, they became less sensitive to painful stimulation but not to other tactile stimulation. In 1990, the researchers followed up with a study that found women in labor had reduced pain sensitivity during labor compared with before and after. (The women in the study used Lamaze breathing techniques rather than drugs to control pain.)[Blossoming Body: 8 Odd Changes That Occur During Pregnancy] In rats, Komisaruk has found that vaginal stimulation blocks the release of a pain transmitter called Substance P right at the level of the spinal cord. In other words, the sensory neurons tasked with transmitting their message of “ouch!” to the central nervous system are stymied from the get-go. “It's an actual physiological, very primordial system of the genital system blocking pain input,” Komisaruk said. In addition, two regions of the brain that become active during orgasm, the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula, are also active during painful experiences. “There's something very intriguing going on between pain and pleasure,” said Komisaruk. Komisaruk holds a patent on the substance that blocks the pain in rats, called vasoactive intestinal peptide. A few pharmaceutical companies have shown interest, he said, but none have yet been willing to shell out the money it would take to test the substance for use as a pain medication in humans. Out of the laboratory and in the delivery room, clitoral and nipple stimulation provide pain relief for some women during labor, Pascali-Bonaro said. Some even use vibrators during labor to decrease pain. “It's such a culture where some women actually feel shamed that they have pleasure, because the expectation is pain,” Pascali-Bonaro said. “We have to change that.” For Skoko, who sang in order to get through her contractions, accepting sensuality into the birthing room was key. “The moment I realized my body is behaving sensually spontaneously and not obstructing that feeling, and just going with this feeling of my sensual body, my labor just went fast ahead,” said Skoko, who gave birth at the Yayasan Bumi Sehat natural birth center in Bali, Indonesia, where she lives part-time. “I had pain, but was not afraid of it, because I was dealing with it,” Skoko said. “It was fun, because I could laugh through it.” Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/yes-orgasms-during-birth-are-real-study-suggests/
New research raises fresh questions about which cancer patients benefit from Avastin, a drug that lost its approval for treating breast cancer nearly two years ago. Avastin did not prolong life when used as a first treatment for people with brain tumors like the one U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy died of several years ago, two studies found. In one, patients who were expected to benefit the most from Avastin based on genetic testing had the worst survival rates. Side effects also were more common with Avastin. The drug is approved for treating brain tumors that have recurred for people who already tried chemotherapy or radiation. But that approval was based on studies suggesting it briefly delayed the worsening of the disease. No definitive study shows it helps those patients live longer, either. Something similar happened with breast cancer: Avastin won the Food and Drug Administration's approval after studies suggested it delayed disease progression. But when later research showed it did not prolong life and brought more side effects, its approval for breast cancer was revoked. However, many cancer experts say the same thing should not happen now, and that Avastin should retain its approval for brain cancer patients whose disease has recurred. “I would definitely not want the FDA to take that away from patients,” said Dr. Deepa Subramaniam, director of the brain tumor center at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C. “That's very different from the breast cancer story,” where there are many other drugs that can be tried, she said. She had no role in the new studies, which were discussed Sunday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago. Avastin, made by Swiss-based Roche's Genentech unit, acts by depriving tumors of a blood supply. It's also sold for treating certain colon, lung and kidney tumors. Another study discussed Sunday and released previously showed it helped women with advanced cervical cancer live nearly four months longer. The new brain cancer studies tested it as initial treatment for glioblastoma, the most common and deadly type of tumor. About 10,000 Americans each year are diagnosed with these tumors, which are nearly always incurable. In one study, 637 patients received standard chemotherapy plus radiation, and half also received Avastin. Both groups lived about 16 months, and those on Avastin had more side effects - mostly low blood counts, blood clots and high blood pressure. “Our study would strongly suggest that it is not beneficial to do it as front-line treatment but to reserve it as second-line or salvage therapy,” said study leader Dr. Mark Gilbert of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Federal grants and Genentech paid for the study, and Gilbert consults for the company. More troubling, independent experts said, is that patients who were expected to do the best based on genetic and other tests surprisingly had a worse survival trend - 16 months versus 25 months for others in the study. New research needs to be done to better define which patients benefit, said Rakesh Jain, a brain tumor expert at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “We just cannot give these agents to every patient,” he said. A second study that tested Avastin as initial therapy with radiation and the drug Temodar found it did not prolong life, but patients on Avastin went nearly five months longer before their tumors appeared to worsen. Avastin costs about $43,000 plus doctor infusion charges for a course of treatment for people whose brain tumors have recurred.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/avastin-fails-studies-in-new-brain-tumor-patients/
Breast cancer is less likely to recur if women previously treated for the disease take the drug tamoxifen for 10 years, instead of the recommended five years, according to a British study. The study was a component of a larger international trial, for which similar results were announced last year. “I think it's huge because it's the second trial to show a benefit for 10 years versus five years,” said Dr. Sandra Swain, medical director of the Cancer Institute at Washington Hospital Center and president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO. “It is important not only in the U.S., but for the world. It is a very inexpensive drug.” Tamoxifen, available as a low-cost generic, has long been used for younger, premenopausal, women with early-stage breast cancer that responds to estrogen. Most start taking the estrogen-blocking drug immediately after completing their initial surgery or chemotherapy. Around 70 percent of breast cancers are estrogen-receptor positive, meaning they are fueled by the hormone. ASCO guidelines now call for women at increased risk of breast cancer to take tamoxifen for five years. For postmenopausal women, the guidelines say raloxifene, an estrogen receptor modulator sold by Eli Lilly under the brand name Evista, may also be considered. The latest findings, presented at the annual ASCO meeting in Chicago this weekend, found that side effects increased with longer tamoxifen use, but concluded that overall benefits outweigh those risks. Researchers estimated that, compared with taking no tamoxifen, 10 years of the drug reduces breast cancer death rates by a third in the first 10 years and by half after that. “Until now, there have been doubts whether continuing tamoxifen beyond five years is worthwhile,” said lead study author Richard Gray, professor of medical statistics at the University of Oxford. Between 1991 and 2005, 6,953 women in the United Kingdom who had been taking tamoxifen for five years were randomly assigned to continue treatment or to stop immediately. Breast cancer recurred in 16.7 percent of the 10-year group, compared with 19.3 percent in the five-year group. Longer treatment also reduced the risk of dying from breast cancer. The women who continued tamoxifen treatment had a 25 percent lower recurrence rate and a 23 percent lower breast cancer mortality rate than the women who had been allocated to stop after only five years. The results were called “practice changing for premenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer,” by Dr. Sylvia Adams, associate professor New York University School of Medicine. In the United States, postmenopausal women at high risk of breast cancer are usually offered drugs in a newer class known as aromatase inhibitors, such as Arimidex, sold by AstraZeneca. “For premenopausal women the standard of care will likely include 10 years of tamoxifen,” Dr. Adams said. “For women who enter menopause during that period, AIs are still an option. Tamoxifen will also be an option.” Rare but serious side effects of tamoxifen include increased risk of endometrial cancer (cancer of the lining of the uterus), blood clots and stroke. The British researchers said they observed no excess incidence of stroke with 10 years of tamoxifen therapy, although the endometrial cancer risk was higher. They estimated that for every endometrial cancer death that occurs as a side effect of long-term tamoxifen, 30 deaths from breast cancer would be prevented.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/longer-tamoxifen-use-reduces-breast-cancer-recurrence/