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Side effects can mean lower chance of recurrence
Source: (cancerfacts.com)
Thursday, October 30, 2008
LONDON – Oct. 30, 2008 – Hot flashes, cold and night sweats, and joint pain while undergoing hormone treatments for breast cancer, can indicate a lower chance of recurrence later on, a new analysis of study data shows.
Led by Dr. Jack Cuzick, Cancer Research UK and Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, researchers analyzed the follow-up results of a large study comparing two hormone therapies for prevention of breast cancer recurrence. Their analysis appears currently online and in the December edition of The Lancet Oncology.
"The appearance of new vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes) or joint symptoms within the first 3 months is a useful biomarker, suggesting a greater response to endocrine treatment compared with women without these symptoms," the authors concluded. "Awareness of the relation between early treatment-emergent symptoms and beneficial response to therapy might be useful when reassuring patients who present with them, and might help to improve long-term treatment adherence when symptoms cannot be alleviated."
The ATAC clinical trial compared the effectiveness of two hormonal treatments, anastrozole and tamoxifen, in preventing breast cancer recurrence following surgery.
In this study analysis participants with tumors that are stimulated to grow in the presence of estrogen were given either anastrozole or tamoxifen to cut off the supply of estrogen to any cancer cells remaining after surgery.
When they looked at those women who reported these symptoms at the first follow-up visit and compared them with women who did not experience these symptoms they found a link between the symptoms and later recurrence.
The researchers found that after 9 years, 18 percent of the women who reported new episodes of hot flashes, and cold and night sweats (vasomotor symptoms) at the initial 3-month follow-up visit experienced a cancer recurrence compared to 23 percent of those who did not experience these side effects.
An even greater decrease in breast cancer recurrence was seen for the 31.4 percent of eligible women who reported new joint symptoms at the 3-month follow-up visit. A total of 14 percent of these women had a recurrence compared to 23 percent of those who did not experience joint pain.
These differences were seen with both tamoxifen and anastrozole; patients receiving anastrozole had lower recurrence rates than those receiving tamoxifen, both among women with and without symptoms.
SOURCE: press materials provided by Cancer Research UK and Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK.
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