Refusing Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer Could Lead to Recurrence

Breast cancer patients who beat the disease should still undergo hormone therapy. Skipping it will reportedly put them at risk of a recurrence.

Refusing Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer

Women with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer typically take hormonal treatment medication after surgery to lower the chance of the cancer returning (recurrence). According to a study, postmenopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive illness who discontinued or skipped hormonal therapy were 35% to 61% more likely to develop breast cancer again.

Medications for hormonal therapy reduce the body's estrogen levels and prevent estrogen from acting on breast cancer cells.

Hormonal treatment drugs come in a variety of forms. One of the most well-known selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) is tamoxifen.

Premenopausal and postmenopausal women can receive treatment with tamoxifen. The aromatase inhibitors Arimidex (anastrozole), Aromasin (exemestane), and Femara (letrozole) were shown to be more effective at reducing recurrence risk in postmenopausal women in the early 2000s and are now used more frequently than tamoxifen to treat menopausal women. For premenopausal women, using aromatase inhibitors to lower the risk of recurrence is uncommon.

Aromatase inhibitors and tamoxifen both have adverse effects, including hot flashes, blood clots, and stroke risk are all increased with tamoxifen. The usage of aromatase inhibitors may result in pain in the muscles and joints. Heart issues, osteoporosis, and shattered bones are aromatase inhibitor adverse effects that are less frequent but more serious.

According to research, 25% of women who are given hormone therapy to lower their risk of recurrence following surgery either don't start taking the medication or stop taking it too soon, frequently due to side effects.

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Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer

Hormone therapy is recommended to lower the likelihood of cancer recurrence. It is frequently applied as adjuvant therapy following surgery. It may occasionally begin as neoadjuvant therapy or before surgery.

Usually, it is taken for at least five years. Women whose cancers have a higher likelihood of recurring may receive treatment for a period of time longer than five years. If more than five years of hormone therapy will benefit a woman, the Breast Cancer Index test may be utilized to make that determination.

Cancer that has returned after treatment or spread to other places of the body can also be treated with hormone therapy. Two-thirds of breast tumors have active hormone receptors. Their cells contain protein receptors for progesterone (PR-positive tumors) and/or estrogen (ER-positive cancers), which aid the growth and metastasis of the cancer cells.

Hormone therapy comes in a variety of forms for breast cancer. Most hormone therapy treatments either reduce the body's estrogen levels or prevent estrogen from promoting the growth of breast cancer cells.

Not just in the breast, hormone therapy can affect cancer cells practically anywhere in the body. It is advised for females with hormone receptor-positive malignancies. However, women with hormone receptor-negative malignancies (hormone receptor-negative tumors) cannot benefit from it.