Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer

Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer Can Help You Recover Faster

Hormone therapy for breast cancer entails a great many medications. The medications have been developed through breast cancer research and treatment; they have been found to improve breast cancer survival rates.

These are breast cancer products that, slow cancer growth and prolong life if they are taken right at the diagnosis time. The major breast cancer hormone therapies are directed against estrogen or progesterone receptors.

Estrogen receptors are normally found on breast cancer cells. Some breast cancer tumors have estrogen receptors on them, too. Others will also have progesterone receptors on them. A few types of breast cancer have no estrogen or progesterone receptors on them.

Types of Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer

There are two types of hormone therapy for breast cancer. Some are breast cancer new drug therapies and others have been around for a long time. The two types of drugs are as follows:

• Drugs that stop the growth of breast cancer by acting on the receptors on breast cancer cells
• Drugs that turn of estrogen and progesterone production in the ovaries.

This kind of hormone therapy is not the same as estrogen replacement therapy that some women get after menopause. These hormone therapies turn off estrogen and progesterone hormone therapy and block the hormones from acting on the cancer cells.

Your doctor will determine what kind of hormone therapy is best for you. He or she will do tests on the cancer cells. He or she will be able to tell you which hormone therapy for breast cancer is right for you.

Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer Involving Estrogen

Breast cancer survival rates are much better if you take anti-estrogen therapy like tamoxifen or raloxifene. The doctor will tell you if you are a candidate for these drugs. Tamoxifen and raloxifene bind to estrogen receptors on the cancer cells and prevent the cancer from growing.

According to breast cancer research and treatment protocols, tamoxifen or raloxifene are breast cancer products that are taken indefinitely after a diagnosis of breast cancer with positive estrogen receptor status. These drugs definitely prolong breast cancer survival rates.

Tamoxifen has been around for thirty years. It was first used only in metastatic disease to prolong the lives of those that had metastatic breast cancer. Now it has a breast cancer new drug use. It is used to treat all types of estrogen positive breast cancer as a form of cure for breast cancer.

Tamoxifen is used in the prevention of breast cancer in a young woman who has had previous breast cancer. It can be used instead of a prophylactic mastectomy for women at high risk for breast cancer.

Tamoxifen is called a selective estrogen-receptor modulator. It is, in effect, an anti-estrogen. You can get hot flashes when you take it.

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Side Effects of Tamoxifen

Besides hot flashes, you can get vaginal dryness or itching. You can get a headache from taking tamoxifen. You can also get irregular menstrual periods.

Tamoxifen is one of the breast cancer products that can give nausea or vomiting. You can get rashes or fatigue from taking it. You can also get weight gain or fluid retention. These side effects are worth it, however, if you have longer breast cancer survival rates.

Taking tamoxifen is a lot like having menopause symptoms. If you take tamoxifen, however, the menopause symptoms don’t usually go away. They are symptoms you need to get used to in order to survive breast cancer.

SERMs and Breast Cancer Prevention

Research has found that women who take SERMs like tamoxifen have a fifty percent reduction in getting breast cancer. Besides prolonging breast cancer survival rates, tamoxifen and other SERMs keep healthy women at high risk from getting breast cancer at all. This may be the best hormone therapy for breast cancer.

Evista, a medication used for osteoporosis will also prevent breast cancer in high risk women. It has fewer side effects than tamoxifen. It is in the class of drugs called SERMs. Fareston is another SERM. It blocks the effects of estrogen and prolongs breast cancer survival rates. It is used for advanced breast cancer in women after menopause.

The use of Aromatase Inhibitors as Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer

Arimidex and Femara are aromatase inhibitors that block the enzyme that turns testosterone into estrogen. They actually work better and prolong breast cancer survival rates longer than SERMs.

Side effects include nausea, vomiting, hot flashes, headaches, pain in the bone, constipation, fatigue and increased bone loss. These are breast cancer new drug therapies that work great if you can handle the side effects. Many of the side effects are like being in menopause.

Aromasin is a drug called an aromatase inactivator. It destroys the aromatase enzyme so that testosterone doesn’t turn into testosterone. It is used in advanced breast cancer in post-menopausal women.

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