On Monday, researchers said that two drugs taken by women at greater risk for breast cancer, tamoxifen and raloxifene, both lower the risk of the disease by nearly 50% in high-risk post-menopausal women while they are taking the drugs.

The benefits of raloxifene fall off more quickly once women stop taking them, however, and the increased benefits of tamoxifen comes at a price: a higher risk of uterine cancer, blood clots and cataracts — although the absolute risks of all three remain low.

One of the Researchers, Dr. Gabriel N. Hortobagyi of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said, "These are relatively inexpensive drugs that reduce breast cancer by about 50% with side effects that are modest".

He spoke at a news conference at a meeting of the American Assn. of Cancer Research, where the results were offered, "We need to reassess why we are not using these drugs more broadly".

The new findings signify an expansion of a clinical experiment, which was first reported in 2007 and permit improvement of the researchers' previous conclusions. The basic point is that women can assertively have either drug to greatly decrease their risk of dying from breast cancer.

Based on these results, the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of raloxifene to avoid breast cancer in high-risk post-menopausal women, while Tamoxifen was already given an approval in both pre- and post-menopausal high-risk women.