meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Witness History

Tamoxifen: Breast cancer ‘wonder drug’

Witness History

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, History

4.51.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The story of how tamoxifen went from a failed contraceptive pill, to being used to prevent and treat breast cancer around the world.

It was the first ever targeted cancer drug.

Laura Jones speaks to Professor V. Craig Jordan, who helped bring it to the world’s attention in the 1970s.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Whether you call it football or soccer in your part of the world,

0:02.9

Match of the Day Africa Top 10 is the podcast

0:05.3

from the BBC World Service ranking the best African players.

0:08.3

This guy's recognized as the best in the world, teams.

0:10.8

World coming, turn, boom!

0:12.6

And the biggest moments in African football.

0:14.4

The whole world, remember that yet?

0:16.4

It's not just African, I'm found.

0:17.9

Match of the Day Africa Top 10.

0:19.8

Find it wherever you get your BBC podcast.

0:23.4

MUSIC

0:28.4

You're listening to the witness history podcast

0:30.6

from the BBC World Service with me, Laura Jones.

0:34.4

Today, we're going back to the 1970s

0:37.2

and a drug which became an unexpected global breast cancer treatment success.

0:44.0

This is Tomoxi Fenn's story.

0:48.4

Tomoxi Fenn is now often prescribed as postoperative therapy

0:51.6

for women over 50, originally designed as a contraceptive.

0:55.6

Tomoxi Fenn works as an anti-estrogen blocking the action

0:59.6

of a woman's natural hormone.

1:01.6

And it treats not just the breast area, but the whole system.

1:05.6

That was the BBC programme Horizon in 1983.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.