AIs

My oncologist had the same information about duration - one study (but a major and well run one) indicates 10 years is better. I am working on one year at a time and we will see how the bones fare! 

I had this discussion with my oncologist. Five years was the first timeframe prescribed as that was the timeframe of the initial trials. As trials have continued, going longer as the years have gone by, so have the positive results continued.

When I first met my oncologist in December she said I'd be on it for 5 - 7 years. When I saw her for the actual prescription in May, she said several clinical trials had recently released their latest findings and that they'd indicated the 10 year timeframe was showing positive benefits. So she recommended I take it for 10 years.

I asked if 12 and 15 years were likely and she said maybe.

She put me on Letrozole for no other reason than because she alternates between that and Anastrozole as each patient comes through her door!

My friends' mothers who had surgery & tablets decades ago - had to take them for 10 years.   These days, 5 years is more the recognised time line.

I guess if you WANTED to go for longer once the 5 years was up - that would be recognised .... the hope being that you won't need in excess of 5 years!

All the best for your Onc meeting, @Sister .   You'll have read of lots of peoples' reactions to various AIs ..... keep in mind that not EVERYONE gets ALL the side effects ALL the time!!

Fingers crossed that you don't get any (or many!)  ;)  

Thanks! I will no doubt find out more on Thursday but always good to go in with some idea about the lay of the land.

The other issue with AI's is how they affect your body. We know that they have a negative effect on bone density, so there's a bit of a risk benefit ratio thing happening. Do they want to keep us on AI's with the risk of a population of osteopaenic or osteoporotic women. I've said women quite deliberately there, as men tend to be put on tamoxifen, as their hormonal profile is quite different. Tamoxifen seems to have a bit of a protective effect on bone density, or at worst, no effect

I think with chemo the aim is to give us as much as we can take! Which may or may not be more than we need. And not all of it may work! Ah joy.

I think through trial results they've found that 5 years seems to be the most efficacious plus 5 years is the magic number for being pronounced cancer free. Though i have read that there seems to be a thought out there that maybe people should be on AIs for longer but that would have to be on a case by case position. Letrozole seems to be the flavour of the month. That and anastrozole have a similar make up but exemestane is steroid based. Becoming a dried up prune? That hasn't happened to me totally...yet!

So, a bit like the number of chemo treatments...they know that a certain number works but not if we'd be okay with slightly less.

As far as I know it's because research tends to be done in periods of years. So we know what the effects may be over a 5 year period, but not over 3 or 4 years. It's probably a cost efficient way to use the research dollars, but when I want to know whether I get any benefit from staying on letrozole for another 2 or 3 years, rather than another 5, we don't know. Benefits for 10 possibly, but don't know if it's an incremental gain or only kicks in at year 8!!