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Cited by 39Cancer-related cognitive impairment studiesMenopause: Health Impacts and TreatmentsBreast Cancer Treatment Studies

Long-term use of tamoxifen reduces the risk of dementia: A nationwide population-based cohort study

Sun, L.-M., Chen, H.-J., Liang, J.-A., Kao, C.-H.·2016·QJM
DOI 10.1093/qjmed/hcv072
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: To assess the possible association between tamoxifen treatment and the subsequent risk of dementia in patients with breast cancer, a population-based cohort study was conducted using the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database. METHODS: The study cohort contained 24 197 patients diagnosed with breast cancer between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2004. Among them, 16 556 cases received tamoxifen treatment and 7641 did not. Four women without breast cancer were frequency matched to each case by age and index-year as the cancer-free group. The outcome of the analysis of is dementia. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models. RESULTS: Patients with breast cancer exhibited a similar risk of developing dementia (adjusted HR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.86-1.04) compared with the cancer-free group. In addition, among women diagnosed with breast cancer, tamoxifen users exhibited a significant 17% lower risk of dementia compared with those not using tamoxifen (adjusted HR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.69-0.98), but the significant difference was limited to 5 years or more use (adjusted HR = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.32-0.69). Both tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitor use had a joint effect, with a significantly lower risk of dementia among patients. CONCLUSION: The results of this population-based cohort study suggest that long-term use of tamoxifen in patients with breast cancer is associated with a lower risk of dementia.

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  • Tamoxifen has shown neuroprotective effects in models of stroke, dementia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury.

    “tamoxifen crosses the blood-brain barrier [32] and has shown neuroprotective effects in models of stroke [33], dementia [34], multiple sclerosis [35], Parkinson’s disease [36], traumatic brain injury [37], and SCI [38].”

    From Delayed short-term tamoxifen treatment does not promote remyelination or neuron sparing after spinal cord injury (2020) · cites this paper as [34]

    The Results report a lower dementia risk among breast cancer patients who used tamoxifen for at least five years. That supports the dementia-related part of the citation, but this was an observational study of patients, not a dementia model demonstrating a neuroprotective effect. The other conditions in the sentence have separate citations and are not attributed to this paper. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Cited by

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Authors
Sun, L.-M., Chen, H.-J., Liang, J.-A., & Kao, C.-H.
Affiliations
  • Zuoying Armed Forces General Hospital (TW)
  • China Medical University Hospital (TW)
  • China Medical University (TW)
ORCID
Venue
QJM
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2015-04-07
Volume
109
Issue
2
Pages
103-109
ISSN
  • 0033-5622 (ISSN-L)
  • 1460-2725
  • 1460-2393
DOI
10.1093/qjmed/hcv072
OpenAlex
W2165871341
Cited by
39
References
1
Citations by year
2025: 7 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1
FWCI
0.53
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • QJM (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Taiwan Biobank
  • Academia Sinica (BM 104010092)
  • China Medical University Hospital (BM104010092)
  • National Research Program for Biopharmaceuticals (MOST 103-2325-B-039 -006)
  • China Medical University
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Cancer-related cognitive impairment studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Menopause: Health Impacts and Treatments
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Breast Cancer Treatment Studies
Keywords
tamoxifen, dementia risk, breast cancer, aromatase inhibitors, long-term drug use, chemoprevention, cognitive decline
MeSH terms
Adult, Breast Neoplasms, Dementia, Female, Humans, Middle Aged, Taiwan, Tamoxifen, Cohort Studies, Proportional Hazards Models, Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal, Protective Factors

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