How long should a patient take tamoxifen for the treatment of breast cancer?
Patients with advanced breast cancer may take tamoxifen for varying lengths of time, depending on their response to this treatment and other factors. When used as adjuvant therapy for early stage breast cancer, tamoxifen is generally prescribed for 5 years. However, the ideal length of treatment with tamoxifen is not known.
How Often Should I Take Tamoxifen?
Two studies have confirmed the benefit of taking adjuvant tamoxifen daily for 5 years. These studies compared 5 years of treatment with tamoxifen with 10 years of treatment. When taken for 5 years, the drug reduces the risk of recurrence of the original breast cancer and also reduces the risk of developing a second primary cancer in the other breast. Taking tamoxifen for longer than 5 years is not more effective than 5 years of therapy.
What is Tamoxifen?
Tamoxifen is an oral selective estrogen receptor modulator which is used in breast cancer treatment, and is currently the world’s largest selling breast cancer treatment. It is used for the treatment of early and advanced breast cancer in pre- and post-menopausal women. It is also approved by the FDA for the reduction of the incidence of breast cancer in women at high risk of developing the disease. It has been further approved for the reduction of contralateral (in the opposite breast) breast cancer.
Tamoxifen and Cancer:
Tamoxifen is used to reduce the risk of breast cancer for women who:
1. Are at high risk of breast cancer but have no personal history of the disease
2. Have non-invasive, hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer, or DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ)
3. Have hormone-receptor-positive invasive breast cancer at any stage.
Tamoxifen is sometimes used to treat gynecomastia in men. Tamoxifen is also used by bodybuilders in a steroid cycle to try and prevent or reduce drug-induced gynecomastia caused by steroids that are used in the same cycle.
Tamoxifen is also used to treat infertility in women with an ovulatory disorders. A dose of 10-40 mg per day is administered in days 3-7 of a woman’s cycle.
Regular exercise is believed to delay the beginning of a girl’s first menstrual period. That is when the body creates hormones that stimulate the majority of breast cancers. According to a study, just 4 hours of weekly exercise can postpone hormone surges for up to 12 months.
Four hours a week is not a large amount of activity for a girl. She can play dodge ball, play on the playground or ride her bike. Because exercise can lower hormone activity, it can reduce risk of breast cancer, even after a girl starts having periods.
One more way is cutting back on fat. Girl who cut her fat intake by only 6 percent lowered her estrogen and progesterone levels by at least 30 percent, according to a study. These theories are not really well tested and need more research.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, other than skin cancer. In the United States approximately 183,000 new cases are diagnosed and about 41,000 women die each year from cancer originating in the breast.
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