The color appearance of stimuli detected via short-wavelength-sensitive cones for breast cancer survivors using tamoxifen

This study compared color appearance data for two populations of middle-aged women: (1) women using the selective estrogen receptor modulator tarnoxifen as adjuvant therapy following successful treatment for early-stage breast cancer, and (2) healthy amenorrheic (peri- or post-menopausal) control subjects not using any hormonally acting medications. A 3-alternative forced-response paradigm (with blue, lavender, or white as the allowable responses) was used for assessing the perceived color of 440-nm foveal test stimuli superimposed on a larger 3.6 log td 580-nm background. in contrast to the control subjects, the majority of tamoxifen users described the test stimuli as white, whether at threshold or slightly suprathreshold. Threshold-sensitivity measurements themselves appeared less effective for distinguishing between subject groups. The results show that a simple color-naming procedure can reveal alterations of foveal shortwavelength-sensitive cone-mediated visual function that are common among tamoxifen users. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.