University of Wisconsin, Madison
Dr Benjamin Brooks, University of Wisconsin Hospital, Madison, presented data at last year's International ALS/MND Conference from a small study of 60 patients, who were all taking riluzole plus various doses of Tamoxifen. Although no significant effects were observed between the various doses at 12 months, by 24 months there appeared to be a beneficial affect at the three highest doses tested.
Brooks is recommending additional clinical trials with larger groups of patients with ALS in order to confirm this observation and to define the future role of Tamoxifen.
Tamoxifen has been used as a treatment for breast cancer and has proven to increase survival in a mouse model of ALS. The current trial extended the earlier trial to 24 months, and examined five different doses of the drug. Results showed that patients taking the highest doses lived for up to 200 days longer than those receiving the lower doses. Larger trials are now planned to confirm this effect.
Interest in Tamoxifen began when clinicians at the University of Wisconsin-Madison noted that an ALS patient receiving Tamoxifen for breast cancer had an unusually mild form of ALS. This clinical observation led to laboratory work using a mouse model of motor neuron degeneration. Mice infected with a virus show initial signs of motor neuron degeneration at 28 days post infection. Disease progresses to a moribund condition at 36 days. Treatment of the mice with Tamoxifen delayed onset of symptoms until 36 days, and mice became moribund at 48 days post viral infection.
Posted October 15, 2008
