Posts Tagged ‘Tamoxifen’

At SABCS, Presentations Highlight Ongoing Issues with Tamoxifen PGx

At SABCS, Presentations Highlight Ongoing Issues with Tamoxifen PGx
Several studies presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium last week investigated whether CYP2D6 testing can help doctors decide whether to treat breast cancer patients with tamoxifen, but the body of evidence did not resolve questions about the role of CYP2D6 genotypes or myriad other factors contributing to variability in tamoxifen metabolism.

Read more on GenomeWeb News

Tamoxifen Effective In Curing Breast Cancer

Tamoxifen, known in the trade as Nolvadex, is usually prescribed by specialists in breast cancer and is taken in pill form. A patient will stay on the drug for about five years.

Often the woman’s cancer will be tested to see if it is sensitive to the amount of oestrogen in the system. If the cancer is oestrogen sensitive, tamoxifen will be given.

Because tamoxifen is such a weak estrogen, its estrogen signals don’t stimulate very much cell growth. And because it has stolen the place away from more powerful estrogen, it blocks estrogen-stimulated cancer cell growth. In this way, tamoxifen acts like an “anti-estrogen.”

Tamoxifen may also take the place of natural estrogen in the receptors of healthy breast cells. In that way it holds down growth activity, and possibly stops abnormal growth and the development of a totally new breast cancer. By blocking natural estrogen from getting to the receptors, tamoxifen is helpful in reducing the risk of breast cancer in women at high risk who have never had breast cancer. It also can help women who have already had breast cancer in one breast by lowering the risk of a new breast cancer forming in the other breast.

One study found that radiation plus tamoxifen was much better than tamoxifen alone at reducing the risk of breast cancer coming back after a lumpectomy in women with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. This was true even for women with very small cancers.

For pre-menopausal women, tamoxifen is the best hormonal therapy. But tamoxifen is no longer the first choice for post-menopausal women. If you’ve been on tamoxifen for two to three years and now you’re in menopause, your doctor may recommend that you switch to an aromatase inhibitor to finish your five years of hormonal therapy. However, you can still get a lot of benefit if you take tamoxifen for up to five years and then switch to an aromatase inhibitor.

Tamoxifen was first used to fight breast cancer at the Christie Hospital in Manchester, England, in 1969. It has since proved its worth as means of stopping the spread or recurrence of the disease in women who have already been treated for it.

But, it was noticed back in the early 1980s that some women who were receiving the drug for cancer in one breast did not develop any tumorous growth in the other. This prompted the suggestion that Tamoxifen might have another preventative role for those women who are at risk of getting breast cancer but have yet to develop any signs of the disease.

Gene mutation increases thromboembolism risk in women taking tamoxifen

Gene mutation increases thromboembolism risk in women taking tamoxifen
Women taking tamoxifen for early-stage breast cancer who developed blood clots were more likely to carry a gene mutation for clotting than women taking tamoxifen who did not develop blood clots, according to an online study published June 16 in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Read more on PhysOrg

Important information for every breast cancer survivor taking tamoxifen

Tamoxifen is one of our best cancer fighting drugs. It successfully prevents the return of ER (estrogen receptor) positive breast cancer in two-thirds of women who take it. Now the success rate can be improved even further by DNA Testing and careful management of other drugs that are being taken with tamoxifen. More information at www.Tamoxitest.com

Is Tamoxifen really effective for Stage IIA Breast Cancer?

Tamoxifen: Questionable Medicine

THE EARLY BLUNDER
In the early 1940′s a drug was developed for the prevention of miscarriages and pregnancy complications. Against the advice of its creator, Sir Charles Dodd, Big Pharma went all out to promote the use of this drug as the answer to miscarriages and pregnancy complications. Known commonly as DES, (diethylstilboestrol) this drug was the first non-steroidal estrogen drug. Over the ensuing years, the drug was given to between four and six million American and European women and 10,000 Australian women and it took 30 years of disastrous results before Big Pharma came around to acknowledging there was a problem with the drug. Meanwhile mothers found themselves faced with a 50% greater risk of developing breast cancer. In addition, the children of these mothers showed, as much as twenty years later, a high evidence of reproductive abnormalities, miscarriages, vaginal cancer, testicular cancer, sterility, and immune dysfunction. The accumulation of horror stories surrounding this drug finally induced the producers to remove it from the market.

REVAMPING A FAILED PRODUCT
Never to be inhibited by this tragic turn, Big Pharma soon found a new garbage drug to foist off on women under the guise of helping them. Tamoxifen, developed out of the DES research became the darling of the pharmaceutical industry. Heavily promoted as an effective preventive of breast cancer and its recurrence, it is today used by more women with breast cancer than any other prescription drug. And to the delight of Big Pharma, it generates a half billion dollars in revenue annually. Of absolutely no consequence, in the profit picture, is the fact that after another 30 years of use, Tamoxifen can point to only minimal benefits within the ocean of negative indicators associated with this drug. The side effects can be horrific and lethal:

Menopausal sypmptoms in young women. Eye damage. Blood clots Psychological symptoms. Asthma Vocal cord changes. Liver cancer. Uterine cancer. Gastrointestinal cancer.

In spite of this, the pharmaceutical industry continues to strenuously push forward with its unconscionable marketing programs. The National Cancer Institute, a prime recipient of Big Pharma grants, enthusiastically endorses this faulty product. This in spite of a September 2000 study in the Lancet reporting that the drug Tamoxifen increased the risk of endometrial cancer! The study found that women taking Tamoxifen for two to five years had twice the risk of developing cancer as women who had never taken it. The study further found that women who had taken the drug for more than five years had seven times the risk.

RISKS WELL KNOWN
These findings are really nothing new. In 1996 an international consortium of scientists published a review identifying Tamoxifen as a human carcinogen which will increase a woman’s risk of developing uterine cancer. These findings did little to deter the pharmaceutical researchers from shrugging it all off by declaring that such cancers are easily treatable. What they failed to consider though is that breast cancer patients who develop uterine cancer while using Tamoxifen are very likely to develop a fast moving, lethal form of this cancer that is extemely difficult to treat effectively.

THE DRUG DOES HAVE SOME VALUE – BUT IS IT WORTH IT?
Tamoxifen is not without its benefits. It has in fact helped many women avoid breast cancer. But do the risks outweigh the benefits? Big Pharma and those it pays and supports say yes. Many others say no. So what are the alternatives?

CANCER CURES KEPT WELL HIDDEN – BUT THEY CAN BE FOUND
The use of a known carcinogen as a cancer suppressant seems to exceed the bounds of reason and without considering profit motive. is very difficult to explain. The profit motive also comes into focus prominently when we learn that there are more than 300 alternative treatments for cancer that in fact, safely and effectively destroy cancer without destroying healthy cells. These treatments are being vigorously suppressed.

A cure – that is a cure – for AIDS/HIV has existed since 1990. (Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Patent # 5188738). It works! A cure for all cancers was developed 22 years ago (Patent # 4665898). Two time Nobel Prize winner Dr Linus Pauling discovered and published the fact that IV infusion of vitamin C could extend the life of a terminal cancer patient by six times and more.

But natural substances used for the cure and control of cancer are roundly ignored, their proponents subjected to ridicule, abuse, harassment. threats, and sometimes accusations of criminal conduct. Natural substances can’t be patented. No profit in that. Still, it’s possible to find courageous professionals who are dedicated to the concept of cure as opposed to management. We’re blessed with these folks, our Alternative Physicians. They’re around. The good ones keep a low profile. You just need to know where to look. One easy way of getting in touch with a competent alternative provider is to visit LeQuadrillage Family Health & Wellness Center and consult their linked directories. Unbiased health and wellness information is available here without cost or obligation. Nothing is sold directly here and your confidence in us is our most treasured asset.

Raloxifene, Tamoxifen Both Guard Against Breast Cancer

Raloxifene, Tamoxifen Both Guard Against Breast Cancer
MONDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) — The latest results from a landmark, long-running study find that both tamoxifen and raloxifene help prevent breast cancer in postmenopausal women, although some differences are starting to emerge between the two drugs.

Read more on HealthDay via Yahoo! News

Is Tamoxifen only effective if the cancer has not spread outside of the breast?

I read that Tamoxifen can be used in people in the advanced stages of breast cancer. Will it still be helpful at all if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes?

Women Sometimes Don’t Get Full Benefit of Tamoxifen

Women Sometimes Don’t Get Full Benefit of Tamoxifen
Barcelona, Spain — Recently published research has shown that some breast cancer patients taking tamoxifen may not be getting the full benefit of their treatment because they have also been taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), prescribed drugs that inhibit the effect of an important enzyme.

Read more on redOrbit

I had breast cancer after the chemo and radiation I took arimadex for 2 years and tamoxifen for 1year?

What do I take if I am allergic to both of them?