o the Editor:

Re "Questions About Arthritis Drugs" (editorial, June 6), about the heavily promoted drugs Celebrex and Vioxx:

With ads promising to cure or prevent everything from allergies and depression to cancer and heart disease, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that advertised drugs can often cause serious, sometimes life-threatening side effects.

Another vulnerable group targeted by drug companies are women at high risk for breast cancer. Ads have urged women to get their doctors to prescribe highly toxic tamoxifen to ward off cancer, though it can cause dangerous side effects and has not been proved to prevent the disease.

Naturally, drug companies want to create a market for their products. But good health is more likely to result from prevention and good lifestyle choices than from ingesting pills with life-threatening potential.  
LISA WANZOR
Assoc. Dir., Breast Cancer Action
San Francisco, June 7, 2002