The patients of breast cancer who halt the intake of generic drug Tamoxifen prior to completing a full five year course are more prone to see the disease return, warned British researchers. Up to half of patients stop taking the drug prematurely but doing so considerably diminishes their chances of survival.
Tamoxifen is typically prescribed to women suffering oestrogen-sensitive breast cancer. It meant the growth of their tumour is fed by the female hormone and the drug can help by jamming oestrogen. However, the treatment can cause disagreeable side effects like hot flushes, headaches, fatigue and many women worry about the raised risk of blood clots and cataracts.
Others may worry if they still need to take if their cancer has not returned within few years. In a study researchers investigated the medical records of two thousand breast cancer patients taking tamoxifen, proposes that half of the patients fail to finish a five year course of the drug and one in five often forget to take the drug.
The first large scale study, which observed the long-term benefits of temoxifen of the nearly thirty-five hundred patients for the period of more than ten years. It showed that the cancer came back in around forty percent of those who took tamoxifen for five years, in comparison to forty-six percent among those who took it for two years.
According study author Dr Allan Hackshaw their study gives conclusive evidence that taking tamoxifen for five years offers women the best chance of surviving breast cancer. Women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer who are prescribed tamoxifen are recommended to take the drug for five years. But many stop after two or three.
Worryingly their results suggest that by doing this, they could increase their risk of cancer coming back, added Dr Hackshaw. This latest study also found that an added benefit of taking tamoxifen for five years was that it reduced the risk of developing or dying from heart disease reported the study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
These effects were strongest among women aged between fifty and sixty at diagnosis, with thirty-five percent fewer women developing a heart condition and nearly sixty percent fewer deaths as a result, added researchers.