Tamoxifen and Neuropathy

Hello,
I had a lumpectomy in 2002 for LCIS. I was on tamoxifen from 2002-2007. No chemo drugs of any kind except tamoxifen. In September of 2008, I developed very defined thigh muscle pain lasting for a year now in the form of shooting leg pain, like random blinking lights, lasting about 3 seconds each. Not in any joints, just all over. No patterns. The pain expanded to all over my body after 9 months. I've been to all dr's who have no diagnosis. Fortunately, nothing neurological is wrong. I've been tested for everything. It also worsens with cold temperatures. Intense heat gives me relief.  My recent dr at the Duke Pain clinic raised the issue of a delayed onset side effect from tamoxifen...migrating neuropathy. He said it's quite unusual for this side effect to develop 18 months after ceasing tamoxifen, but perhaps there is nerve damage and it's being manifested in this way--the shooting leg pain. I read on medhelp where a woman who had been on tamoxifen for years developed thigh muscle pain, described in the same way as my symptoms. My breast Dr here has not come across any documented cases associating tamoxifen w/neuropathy. I am on no other drugs, nor have I ever been. I am 53 and generally in very good health. No recurrence of any problems with my breast LCIS.
DK100
11/13/09

[Cleveland Clinic]

Dear DK100:  Neuropathy is not a documented side effect of tamoxifen.  Of course, strange things can happen but we could not prove that your problem came from tamoxifen any more than we can prove that this is idiopathic (without clear cause).