A BREAST CANCER PREVENTION PROGRAM SPONSORED BY THE NATIONAL SURGICAL ADJUVANT BREAST AND BOWEL PROGRAM (NSABP)

Decatur, IL, Monday, April 17, 2006 - Women may not remember this date, but they will remember a time before STAR when they had no choice but to wait for breast cancer to afflict them. Nationwide, more than 175,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. After today, women can now do something to protect themselves. Locally, 223 women were enrolled in the STAR trial at Decatur Memorial Hospital and all have been awaiting today’s breaking news. Because of STAR, and the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (BCPT) that came before it, we can help women prevent breast cancer.

These participating women, and their supporting families, have played an important role in making these two prevention programs successful. The BCPT began in 1992 and enrolled 13,388 women over five years. Ninety-nine of those women were enrolled from Decatur and surrounding towns through the Decatur Memorial Hospital Cancer Care Institute Research Department as part of the National Cancer Institute Central Illinois Community Clinical Oncology Program (CICCOP). The CICCOP, which includes Decatur Memorial Hospital, Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, and Sherman Hospital in Elgin, recruited 171 women to this first study, and was honored by the NSABP for the large number of participants and the outstanding accuracy of their data.

The results of BCPT showed that Tamoxifen can reduce the incidence of invasive breast cancer by 49% in high risk women and can prevent an early form of breast cancer known as Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) in 45% of women. Tamoxifen however can have some side effects that detract from its widespread use as a cancer prevention pill. The BCPT demonstrated that Tamoxifen can cause blood clots that could be potentially fatal and that it can, in rare cases, also cause cancer of the uterus. National cancer prevention experts believed that the search must continue for a safer more effective prevention strategy.

The STAR trial has compared the best standard drug, Tamoxifen, to a newer medication, Raloxifene that may have fewer side effects and possibly more protection power. The STAR study began in 1999 and finished enrolling women in June of 2004. There were 19,747 women enrolled in North America, and 223 of these came from Decatur and its surrounding communities. The CICCOP placed a total of 346 women on

STAR, earning the CICCOP research group further national recognition for the number of women on study and for the sterling quality of the data that they collected. The STAR study showed that the newer drug, Raloxifene, can prevent breast cancer equally as well as Tamoxifen, but with significantly fewer serious side effects. Specifically, Raloxifene was associated with a 36% reduction in the risk of uterine cancer and a 29% reduction in the risk for blood clots. These results give women a safer way to protect themselves from developing breast cancer.

"This great news is made possible by the wonderful women who came forward to volunteer to participate in these two landmark prevention trials, and the results released today would not have been possible without their dedication and commitment towards the cause of eliminating breast cancer," said James L. Wade, M.D., Principal Investigator of the Central Illinois Community Clinical Oncology Program.". "We will not, however, rest on today’s news. Even though we now have a better tool to prevent breast cancer, women are still found to have new cases every day in Central Illinois. We look forward to our next prevention program for breast cancer which will begin accepting enrollment later this year."

"We would like to express our immense gratitude to the women locally and nationally for being a part of the STAR trial. They are an extraordinary group of women who genuinely care about making a difference in the lives of women everywhere," said Susan Walsh, Clinical Research Associate and STAR Coordinator. "Without their participation, we could not have made the strides in breast cancer prevention that we have made today."

This trial will compare Raloxifene, the winner of STAR, to a new type of cancer prevention pill that might be more both more effective and safer. "We ultimately will triumph over breast cancer", stated Dr. Wade. "This goal will come with many small steps. Today was a big step."

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