UNDECIDED

[glory1333]

Gentlemen,

I need help in deciding if I should take or not take Tomaxifen for the next five years.  I had a lumpectomy 15 years ago.  They took out 18 nodules which were all good.  Last Dece,ber I went and had a mamography and they suspected in three different spots I had.  They made me an open biopsy at the Cancer Center in Philadelphia.  They closet me up because they only found some atypia cells.  As I had those cells, they have advised me to get Tomaxifen.

Yesterday I went to see a Cancer Doctor here in San Juan, Puerto Rico and she explained to me that Tomaxifen has several very serious side effects like:  blood clots, heart failures, etc.  and that I may get cancer in the endocratin area in my vagina and would then need an operation down in that area.  

I wonder what is worse, if I should just wait to see if the cells develop or not into cancer or go ahead and take the Tomaxifen.  They also have told me that I will looose my hair, etc.  That is a disaster...

What are the chances that this Tomaxifen help me at all.  Is it worth it to take it?

Please let me know what you think about it.

Thanks,


Gloria Sutter

[bluebutterfly2222]

p.s. I am very sorry it so long for anyone to give you a reply, but your question rolled over to the secong page before I saw it.

bb

[bluebutterfly2222]

Five years of tamoxifen treatment -- with or without chemotherapy -- cuts a woman's 15-year risk of breast cancer death by about a third.

The reassuring finding comes from analysis of long-term data on 21,457 women with breast cancer enrolled in clinical trials of tamoxifen.

One reason breast cancer is so deadly is that it often comes back after what a woman had hoped would be curative treatment. Tamoxifen reduces this risk.

It would be important to know if your cells were hormone receptor positive, however, because  tamoxifen works only on the most common form of breast cancer,  the form that needs the female hormone estrogen in order to grow. These cancers carry proteins, called receptors, that bind estrogen. Tamoxifen makes it impossible for these receptors to bind estrogen.

Since the surgeon/Cancer Center in Philadelphia recommended it for you, apparently it was felt that you would benefit from it. If you have any doubts about this, you should get back in touch with them.

Although tamoxifen, like all drugs, can cause side effects, most oncologists believe its benefit outweighs the risk, unless there is something in your personal medical hx that makes it contra-indicated.

Best wishes...