Evaluation of Tamoxifen Therapy in Breast Cancer Sudanese Patients A Clinical Pharmacogenomics Study in Radio Isotope Center Khartoum (RICK)

Tamoxifen is a non-steroidal anti-estrogen drug widely used in the treatment of breast cancer and metabolized by the common isozyme CYP2D6. This study was set out to evaluate this current clinical practice using pharmacogenetic techniques. to assess the use and outcomes of tamoxifen treatment. The study was done in Radiation and isotope center Khartoum (RICK) with experimental pharmacogenetic work for the selected patient’s blood samples, using PCR-RFLP method. Tamoxifen showed relapses independent to treatment duration with hot flashes as major side effects, but has good quality of life. Pharmacogenomically, patients using tamoxifen (n=56), only (26) samples passed the test, where (80.8%, n=21) were found to be intermediate metabolizers, whilst only (15.4%, n=4) were poor metabolizers and only (3.8%, n=1) were found to be extensive metabolizers. The majority of Sudanese women patients have tamoxifen resistance with high relapses of disease, this due to the intermediate biotransformation by CYP2D6 among Sudanese ladies so genotyping polymorphism is significant regarding the drug response.