HealthPoint
Hormonal therapy can reduce recurrence risk by half
Anyone who has had breast cancer knows the fear: “Will it return?”
Jennifer Brown, M.D., a Mills-Peninsula medical oncologist, says one way women with estrogen receptive cancer can calm that anxiety is to consider additional treatment known as adjuvant hormonal therapy.
“Hormonal therapy has been shown to decrease the risk of breast cancer recurrence and of a new breast cancer developing,” she said. Women usually take the pills for about five years after surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
As part of her breast cancer fellowship, Dr. Brown created a clinical trial studying hormonal therapies at Northwestern University.
“Tamoxifen had been the gold standard for 20 years,” the doctor said. “Now there are medications called aromatase inhibitors that may do an even better job with fewer side effects for post-menopausal women.
“Even in women whose ovaries are no longer making estrogen, the body still creates it by converting hormones secreted by the adrenal gland into estrogen in muscle, fat tissue and even the breast. “Aromotase inhibitors shut that enzyme off. They have been shown to reduce the risk of a second cancer by about half.
“There are three major aromotase drugs: anastrozole (Arimidex), letrozole (Femara) and exemestane (Aromasin),” the oncologist said.
All the hormonal drugs have a risk of side effects, some serious.
“Tamoxifen risks include blood clots and a small increased risk for uterine cancer. The risk with aromotase inhibitors is possible bone loss. Some women report increased fatigue, hot flashes and weight gain from all these drugs.
“Quality of life is an important part of the decision whether to use hormonal therapy,” Dr. Brown said. “There are ways to mitigate most side effects." “Medications such as Fosamax control bone loss. Diet and exercise control weight, reduce fatigue and build bone mass.”
For more information about adjuvant therapy, ask your doctors. Click below for more health information on Tamoxifen and Armidiex.