Jornal de Metabolismo e Toxicologia de Drogas
Acesso livre

Abstrato

Tamoxifen-Induced Lupus Erythematosus

Mohammed Mohammed EA, Sharief Nawahil A, Abukashawa Sumaia and Mohamed Abdelrahim O

Introduction: Anti Nuclear Antibodies are one of the auto antibodies which are involved in screening, diagnosis and pathology of some auto and non autoimmune and drug induced diseases including Lupus Erythrymatosus. Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate, if there is any correlation between tamoxifen side effects and the blood levels of Anti Nuclear Antibodies as a consequence of drug-induced lupus erythematosus. Methods: Twenty-eight breast cancer patients under tamoxifen therapy were involved in this study and compared to 11 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients who did not receive any therapy. 5 mls of intravenous blood were collected from the subjects after informed consent was obtained. The plasma was separated and the ANA levels were determined using ELISA. Results: Seventeen patients under tamoxifen were found with high level of ANA while 11 patients were with normal levels of ANA. However, the mean ANA plasma level in patients under tamoxifen therapy was 155.39 U/ml (9.4-911.7 U/ml) compared to 11.31 U/ml (0.9-29 U/ml) in the newly diagnosed patients; the ANA level significantly increased (p value was 0.017). The patients under tamoxifen therapy were divided to five groups according to the number of tamoxifen therapies they received. Group 1 of 4 patients: received one tamoxifen therapy, group 2 of 6 patients: received three therapies, group 3 of 5 patients: received 5 therapies, group 4 of 9 patients: received 6 therapies and group 5 of 4 patients: received therapies ≥ 10. When the means of ANA concentration were compared to the mean of the newly diagnosed patients the p values were 0.88, 0.26, 0.09, 0.04 and 0.17 respectively. Conclusions: This study concluded that, although tamoxifen therapy did not affect the ANA level in all the patients, it significantly increased the blood level of ANA.