Tamoxifen Has Been Found To Be An Effective Antifungal Medicine

It was announced on the major news services this past August that researchers at the University of Rochester have discovered that Tamoxifen is an effective antifungal agent.

Tamoxifen is the pill that is given to breast cancer patients for 5 years after they have finished chemotherapy to prevent recurrence of their cancer.

The U of R researchers believe that Tamoxifen can be used to treat life-threatening infections of the blood by fungi like Candida.

Obviously, if you've read my blog, it is clear to me why Tamoxifen is effective against both breast cancer and fungal infection - breast cancer is CAUSED by fungal disease.

I emailed the lead researcher today. Here is what I wrote to him:

I've read with interest about your discovery that Tamoxifen is an effective anti-fungal agent. I am an OBGYN.

I also have Stage 4 breast cancer. I contracted an aggressive skin fungal infection that spread to my breast tissue and formed a mass in less than a week's time. Biopsy of the mass showed deeply invasive carcinoma. The cancer spread to my chest wall and sternum while I was waiting for my staging PET scan.

That was 2 years ago. I'm still alive and living an essentially normal life because my oncologist listened to my story - that the carcinoma started from an aggressive fungal infection - and treated me with Caspofungin. The disease had continued to spread painfully through me despite chemo. Caspofungin stopped its progress. I'm certain Stage 4 breast cancer patients die despite chemo because the underlying disease process is left untreated.

I ask that you consider the possibility that Tamoxifen is effective against both breast cancer and fungal disease because breast cancer is in fact caused by fungal disease.

It is my heartfelt wish that medical research be done that ties breast cancer to fungal infection so that other breast cancer patients can survive as I have.

Best regards,

Julia White, MD

I'll keep you posted whether I receive a response from him.

I will continue to contact medical researchers in the hope that the idea that the most common forms of cancer in the US are caused by infection, including fungal infection, will interest researchers in pursuing that line of research, lead to the discovery of the fungal etiology of these cancers and lead to a real cure in the very near future.