Hot Flashes May Be Welcome Sign In Women with Breast Cancer

Women on tamoxifen therapy who reported having hot flashes were less likely to develop recurrent breast cancer than those who did not report hot flashes, according to a study from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Moreover, hot flashes were a stronger predictor of outcome than age, hormone receptor status or even how advanced the breast cancer was at diagnosis.... "This study provides the first evidence that hot flashes may be an indicator of a better prognosis in women with early stage breast cancer," said the study's senior author, John P. Pierce, PhD, director of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. "Our data support the possibility of a significant association between hot flashes and disease outcome."--Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--

Tamoxifen Has Late Effect in Preventing Breast Cancer

Tamoxifen is associated with a highly significant reduction in the incidence of estrogen receptor-positive invasive breast cancer that predominantly occurs after the 8-year treatment period, according to long-term follow-up results from the Royal Marsden Tamoxifen Breast Cancer Prevention Trial."This late effect indicates a preventative rather than a treatment effect on established occult disease," said Trevor J. Powles, MD, emeritus professor of breast oncology, Institute of Cancer Research, and lead clinician, Parkside Oncology Centre, London, United Kingdom. --Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--

Treatment-Induced Amenorrhea May Prevent Breast Cancer Relapse: Presented at SABCS

Treatment-induced amenorrhea during chemotherapy for breast cancer is associated with a significant 44% reduction in relapse risk in women under 40 years of age, a prospective, randomized study shows.Michael Gnant, MD, professor of surgery, Medical University of Vienna, Austria, presented the results on behalf of the Austrian Breast & Colorectal Cancer Study Group here on December 15th at the 29th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).The study involved 1,099 premenopausal women with estrogen- or progestin-receptor-positive, Stage I or II breast cancer. Following surgery, the women were randomized to 1 of 2 treatment regimens: 1) ovarian suppression with 3.6 mg of goserelin (Zoladex) every 28 days for 3 years and 20 mg/day of tamoxifen for 5 years; 2) 6 cycles of chemotherapy consisting of cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan) 600 mg/m2 combined with methotrexate 40 mg/m2, and fluorouracil (Adrucil) 600 mg/m2 intravenously on days 1 and 8. --Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--