Effects of tamoxifen and octreotide LAR on the IGF-system compared with tamoxifen monotherapy

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Octreotide.

Alterations in the IGF-system in the two treatment arms and individual changes with respect to outcome were compared.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 150 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, women only.

The insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-system was evaluated in 150 breast cancer patients participating in a randomised phase III trial comparing octreotide pamoate and tamoxifen with tamoxifen+placebo.

Serum IGF-I and -II, free IGF-I, and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 1-3 (IGFBP1-3) were measured by radioimmmunoassay (RIA)/immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) and IGFBPs by Western ligand blots (WLB) before and during treatment.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Octreotide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Octreotide, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Octreotide could be set against what happens without it.

What Was Measured

Alterations in the IGF-system in the two treatment arms and individual changes with respect to outcome were compared.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols, Breast Neoplasms, Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Proteins, Octreotide, Proportional Hazards Models, Somatomedins and Tamoxifen.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Octreotide in 150 patients.

The publication is from 2005 (European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990)), a journal based in England.

More context: the Octreotide compound page, all human trials.