Can raloxifen (Evista) cause liver damage?/nThe questioner wants to know whether raloxifene could h

Fråga: Can raloxifen (Evista) cause liver damage?<br><br>The questioner wants to know whether raloxifene could harm the liver, due to the fact that the related drug, tamoxifen, has this effect.

Sammanfattning: There are no statements or case reports concerning hepatic side effects of raloxifene. However, the drug is fairly new on the market and its documentation is scarce.

Svar: Raloxifene is a newly registered drug related to tamoxifen. Raloxifene is a selective oestrogenreceptor modulator. It acts as an agonist on bone and lipid metabolism and as an antagonist in reproductive tissues such as breast and uterus (1). It is indicated for prophylactic treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women and not for treatment of menopausal symptoms (2).<br><br>Raloxifene is rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and to about 60 per cent when given p.o. It is extensively glucuronidated presystemically and the absolute bioavailability is 2 per cent. It undergoes biliary excretion and most of an oral dose is found in the faeces. Less than 6 per cent is found in urine as the glucuronide conjugate (2).<br><br>When searching in Medline and pharmacological handbooks we could not find any statements or case reports concerning liver damage as an adverse effect of raloxifene. In SWEDIS, (the Swedish Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee database) (3) there were four reports, and in Intdis there were seven reports (4) concerning adverse reactions of raloxifene but none of them were hepatic side effects.<br><br>According to the manufacturer (5), there are no reports of adverse liver reactions during treatment with raloxifene.<div id="referenser" style="display:none;">1 Dollery C Sir, editor. Therapeutic drugs. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1998<br>2 FASS 1998 (The Swedish catalogue of approved medical products)<br>3 SWEDIS (The Swedish Drug Information System)<br>4 Intdis (International Drug Information System): WHO:s adverse drug reactions database<br>5 Nils Wilking, onkolog, Lilly</div>