ABSTRACT

Tamoxifen is a synthetic, nonsteroidal, antiestrogenic drug that is widely used therapy for early and metastatic breast cancer patients with positive estogen receptor proteins. Despite the availability of relatively extensive data on various endometrial pathologies caused by exposure to tamoxifen, there are only a few sporadic cases of malignant and benign ovarian tumors thus far reported, which developed coincidentally to tamoxifen treatment. A retrospective review of tamoxifen treated 164 premenopausal and post menopausal women with breast cancer who were followed up by the gynecology outpatient clinic at Ankara Oncology Hospital between January 1996, December 2004 was performed. We examined a group of breast cancer patients who underwent total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oopherectomy for ovarian pathologies after the diagnosis of breast cancer patients treated with tamoxifen. In this report, we presented six cases of ovarian tumors diagnosed in patients using tamoxifen for breast cancer. We also discussed the development of ovarian tumors in patients using tamoxifen for breast cancer.