A number of alternative treatments are available to patients who respond poorly to Tamoxifen
Tamoxifen
Tamoxifen is used to treat breast cancer. It is also used to reduce the chances of breast cancer in high-risk patients.
What happens when you stop taking tamoxifen?
Raloxifene, trade name Evista, is an estrogen-blocking drug that can serve as an alternative to Tamoxifen. It belongs to a class of estrogen inhibitors called selective estrogen response modulators. Evista works by blocking the activation of estrogen receptors on breast cells to prevent estrogen signaling.
When to start taking tamoxifen?
Anastrozole is a medication that may be used to treat postmenopausal breast cancer and works by lowering estrogen levels in the body. It is usually taken for five years and hot flushes are the most... View more. Arimidex is a medication that may be used to treat postmenopausal breast cancer and works by lowering estrogen levels in the body.
Does tamoxifen really work?
Grains can include amaranth, black rice, wild rice, brown rice, buckwheat, millet, and triticale. How to soak and cook grains. Add broccoli sprouts on your daily salad as they are high in nutrients and can also help the body to eliminate excess estrogen. You can buy broccoli seeds and a Seed Sprouter online and begin to sprout your own.
How to stop taking tamoxifen?
Feb 28, 2008 · I was diagnosed with estrogen receptor positive invasive breast cancer. Another alternative to tamoxifen is Arimidex. I am on Arimidex instead of Tamoxifen. Some side affects of this drug are muscle and bone aches. Check with your oncologist since new studies have shown positive results for premenopausal women. Arimidex is newer than Tamoxifen.
What can I replace tamoxifen with?
Is there a safer alternative to tamoxifen?
Is there an alternative to tamoxifen for premenopausal?
What is the best estrogen blocker for breast cancer?
- Anastrozole (Arimidex). Anastrozole is used to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence in women who have been treated for early-stage breast cancer. ...
- Exemestane (Aromasin). ...
- Letrozole (Femara).
Are aromatase inhibitors better than tamoxifen?
Can I skip tamoxifen?
Why you should not take tamoxifen?
Which is better anastrozole or tamoxifen?
Why is tamoxifen preferred in premenopausal?
What happens if you don't take estrogen blockers after breast cancer?
Is it better to have estrogen positive breast cancer?
What does blocking estrogen do to your body?
Side Effects
Commonly reported side effects include: amenorrhea, fluid retention, hot flash, nausea, vaginal discharge, vaginal hemorrhage, weight loss, skin changes.
Half Life
The half-life of a drug is the time taken for the plasma concentration of a drug to reduce to half its original value.
Is tamoxifen used for breast cancer?
It is being used in both metastatic and in adjuvant settings, with tens of thousands of premenopausal patients being prescribe d this drug every year.
Is tamoxifen a carcinogen?
In 1996, a division of the World Health Organization, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, declared that tamoxifen is a Group I carcinogen, meaning that it can cause cancer.
Does tamoxifen help with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer?
The problem with tamoxifen. Tamoxifen is a drug that is often prescribed for patients who have been diagnosed with estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancers for the purpose of blocking estrogen from binding to the hormone receptor sites with the assumption that it will prevent future estrogen-fueled breast cancers.
Does tamoxifen cause liver cancer?
A study at Johns Hopkins found that tamoxifen can increase the risk of developing liver cancer. It can increase the risk of developing life threatening blood clots in the lungs or other major blood vessels.
How to balance hormones?
Ways to balance your hormones naturally. Eat a whole foods, mostly plant-based diet that eliminates all processed foods, flours, dairy products and red meats. Eating very limited amounts of animal proteins.
What fruits help with lymphatic drainage?
Some powerful fruits to include are: Red grapes, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, cherries, pomegranates, pineapple, granny smith apples, lemons, limes, and oranges.
What essential oils are good for balancing hormones?
You can read more about cannabis oil. Using essential oils such as myrrh, myrtyl, sandalwood, geranium, clove, rosemary, and clary sage can also be helpful in balancing the hormones.
Does tamoxifen reduce recurrence risk?
In summary, in addition to taking tamoxifen, making good nutrition choices can reduce recurrence risk.
Does tamoxifen help with ER+?
Tamoxifen often is prescribed as part of the treatment for ER+ breast cancer. Tamoxifen binds with estrogen receptors, without activating growth in breast cancer cells. In this way, tamoxifen prevents a women's own estrogen from binding with these cells. As a result, breast cancer cell growth is blocked.
What is the Mediterranean diet?
To follow a Mediterranean diet, you need to eat plenty of vegetables, fruit, legumes, olive oil, fish, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Eating soy.
How much weight did the low fat diet lose?
The women in the very low-fat diet group also lost about six pounds of body weight, on average. Some health experts feel that the weight loss might be the reason that the low-fat diet reduced risk of recurrence among women with ER- breast cancer.
What are the best foods to eat to prevent breast cancer?
To follow a Mediterranean diet, you need to eat plenty of vegetables, fruit, legumes, olive oil, fish, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Eating soy. Several studies now support that women who regularly eat soy foods have a lower risk of breast cancer and breast cancer recurrence.
Why is tamoxifen prescribed for breast cancer?
Tamoxifen often is prescribed as part of the treatment for ER+ breast cancer. Tamoxifen binds with estrogen receptors, without activating growth in breast cancer cells.
How many servings of vegetables and fruit per day?
Only the combination of five servings of vegetables and fruit per day and regular physical activity provided measurable health benefits. Another study, the Women's Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS), randomly selected 2,437 women with early stage breast cancer to eat a standard healthy diet or to follow a very low-fat diet.
Can tamoxifen interfere with tamoxifen?
If you are taking tamoxifen, talk to your doctor about any medications that you are taking (including over-the-counter products, such as cold and allergy medications) to be sure that they don’t interfere with tamoxifen.
Does tamoxifen stop breast cancer?
The drug tamoxifen was developed to block estrogen and therefore stop that growth, to help treat, prevent, and stop the recurrence of most breast cancer. Breast cancer that is sensitive to estrogen is called “estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.”. For tamoxifen to do its job, it needs to be broken down in the body by a key protein known as ...
Is aromatase inhibitor effective for breast cancer?
Daniel Hayes, MD, who directs the breast cancer program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, says the evidence has long pointed to a modest survival benefit for advanced breast cancer patients taking aromatase inhibitors. He adds that there is increasingly strong evidence the newer drugs are also more effective ...
What is aromatase inhibitor used for?
Aromatase inhibitors are now widely used in the U.S. to treat both early stage and advanced hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers -- cancers that use estrogen to grow -- in postmenopausal women.
How long can you live with breast cancer?
From the pooled analysis, the researchers estimate that an advanced breast cancer cancer patient normally expected to live 2.5 years would get, on average, an additional four months of life by taking a third-generation (the newest) aromatase inhibitor instead of tamoxifen.
What is advanced cancer?
Advanced cancer was defined as either cancer that has spread outside the breast area, recurrent breast cancer, or cancer in the breast area that is inoperable. "I would say that the evidence is fairly convincing that the third-generation aromatase inhibitors can improve survival in patients with advanced disease," John P.A.
Who is Eric Winer?
Eric Winer, MD, who directs the Breast Oncology Center at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, agrees. "Ultimately, the hope is that we will be able to identify tumor or patient characteristics that can guide us in the choice of treatment," he tells WebMD.
Does Tamoxifen cause cancer?
Some of the more serious side effects of Tamoxifen include blood clots, stroke, endometrial cancer and memory loss. Aromatase inhibitors (AIs), like arimidex, aromasin and femara, are also used to help fight cancer cell regrowth. These drugs work to block cell receptors like estrogen and progesterone in breast cancers that are hormone receptor ...
What are the treatments for breast cancer?
Standard adjuvant therapies after a breast cancer diagnosis often include one or more of the following: chemotherapy, radiation treatments, surgery or long-term medications such as SERMS (selective estrogen receptor modulators).
Who is Bonnie Annis?
She is an avid photographer, freelance writer/blogger, wife, mother and grandmother.
How long does it take to stop tamoxifen?
One recent study revealed 21% of women stopped their therapy within a year of diagnosis and 35% stopped by 3.5 years.
What is tamoxifen used for?
Tamoxifen is a selective estrogen receptor (ER) modulator and is used in the treatment of hormone positive breast cancer. Tamoxifen is also used for the prevention of breast cancer in women who are at higher risk based on hyperplasia or increased growth of cells on prior biopsies.
Is tamoxifen a placebo?
Randomized Placebo Controlled Trial of Low-Dose Tamoxifen to Prevent Local and Contralateral Recurrence in Breast Intraepithelial Neoplasia. Tamoxifen is a selective estrogen receptor (ER) modulator and is used in the treatment of hormone positive breast cancer.
Is tamoxifen a hormone?
Source: NEJM doi: 10.1200/JCO.18.01779. Tamoxifen is a selective estrogen receptor (ER) modulator and is used in the treatment of hormone positive breast cancer. Tamoxifen is also used for the prevention of breast cancer in women who are at higher risk based on hyperplasia or increased growth of cells on prior biopsies.
Does tamoxifen cause cancer?
The most serious adverse side effects of tamoxifen are blood clots and endometrial cancer. Tamoxifen also can affect quality of life as some women experience menopause-like symptoms such as hot flashes and difficulty with intercourse.
How long does tamoxifen last?
So what does this mean for women who are recommended tamoxifen therapy? Tamoxifen at 5 mg per day for three years can halve the recurrence of hormone-sensitive breast cancer. In these women on tamoxifen 5 mg per day, adverse events were not significantly different than the placebo group.
Does tamoxifen affect quality of life?
Tamoxifen also can affect quality of life as some women experience menopause-like symptoms such as hot flashes and difficulty with intercourse. Due to these lifestyle side effects, there is a significant percent of patients who stop tamoxifen therapy despite known benefits.
Mechanism of action
Prevention
- At this time, there are no good research studies that directly compare the use of specific diets or nutritional strategies with the use tamoxifen, to prevent breast cancer recurrence. This means we do not know whether any particular diet or nutritional plan is as effective as tamoxifen for preventing recurrence. If you decide to try nutrition inste...
Diet
- We do have some research that tells us diet and nutrition have an effect on survival after breast cancer. These studies are not as rigorous as controlled, blinded clinical trials, but they do tell us that nutrition matters. In summary, in addition to taking tamoxifen, making good nutrition choices can reduce recurrence risk.
Research
- There have been several large research studies that have tracked what women are eating, and in some cases even assigned women to follow specific diets, and then documented how these dietary factors may affect risk of breast cancer recurrence.
Results
- The Women's Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) study followed approximately 1,500 women with early stage breast cancer who were treated between 1991 and 2000, and found that women who followed two healthy lifestyle behaviorseating plenty of vegetables and fruit every day and getting regular physical activitywere nearly 50% less likely to die during the study follow up. This study i…
Benefits
- Most importantly, both lean and obese women reduced their risk with these healthy lifestyle choices. Even if the obese women did not lose a pound, they still benefitted from eating vegetables and fruit and exercising moderately every day. Interestingly, doing one or the other of these behaviors did not significantly reduce risk of death after a breast cancer diagnosis. Only th…
Example
- Another study, the Women's Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS), randomly selected 2,437 women with early stage breast cancer to eat a standard healthy diet or to follow a very low-fat diet. The difference in fat intake between the groups was significant: The women in the very low-fat group ate about 33 grams of fat per day, on average. The women in the regular diet group ate about 5…
Risks
- Please thoroughly discuss the pros and cons of tamoxifen with your oncologist, and obtain additional opinions from other oncologists as well. Get all of the facts about the risks and benefits of tamoxifen and this will allow you to make the best decision for your future health.
Philanthropy
- The original question and answer were generously donated by Diana Dyer, MS, RD a cancer survivor, registered dietitian, organic garlic farmer, and the author of \"A Dietitian's Cancer Story: Information & Inspiration for Recovery & Healing from a 3-time Cancer Survivor.