New Upfront About Breast Cancer Podcast: Hormone Blocking Therapy
Good morning! Please find below information on BCNA's latest Upfront About Breast Cancer Podcast Episode 38: Hormone Blocking Therapy - Balancing Quality of Life and Risk of Recurrence We recommend that listeners exercise self-care when listening to this podcast, as some may find the content upsetting. Let’s be upfront about the side effects of hormone-blocking therapies for the treatment of hormone receptor positive breast cancer. About 70% of breast cancers are hormone receptor positive, meaning that the breast cancer cells use these hormones to grow. Hormone-blocking therapy is usually prescribed as part of the treatment as works by lowering the amount of oestrogen in the body or blocking the oestrogen receptors on the cancer cells, depriving them of the hormones they need to grow, with the aim of reducing the risk of breast cancer coming back, or new breast cancer developing. In this episode we’re joined by Debbie Packham who was diagnosed with early breast cancer in 2016 and 4 weeks later was diagnosed with oligometastatic breast cancer and has been on hormone-blocking therapy for 4 years, Ro Woods who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020 and has been on hormone-blocking therapy for 5 months and Lisa Sheeran who has worked with breast cancer patients for over 21 years and has been a breast care nurse for 9 years. We’ll hear about the different types of hormone-blocking therapies, the common side effects and impacts on quality of life, the key benefits, effective strategies and the support available to help you manage your treatment. To help us continue to develop podcasts that are relevant to our members and their breast cancer diagnosis, we ask for your feedback via our online survey. Upfront About Breast Cancer is a production of Breast Cancer Network Australia. Our theme music is by the late Tara Simmons, and this episode is proudly brought to you by Dry July.
Hot Flushes
Would love to know if others have had this problem. I am 75yrs. old, but since about 50 the only time I have never had flushes was when I was on HRT. Now, off HRT. because of Breast Cancer and taking Tamoxifen I am having terrible flushing. The Doctor's have tried every medication, I even went to hospital to have a "Stella Ganglia Block" but nothing has worked. My Doctor's now want to put me back on to hormones, which worries me, as my cancer was aggressive and 3/3. Any advice or opinion, would be appreciated.
Controversial as it might be - is anyone currently taking HRT with ER Positive, HER 2 breast cancer
I hope someone can help me with this question. I am just over 3 years since my BC diagnosis plus 6 rounds of chemo and radiotherapy. I am now 55yrs and am suffering terribly with hot flushes 3 or 4 a night and between 5 and 13 each day. Initially I was on Arimidex but due to arthritis complications after about 5 months eventually agreed to try Tamoxifen although I was tempted to resist everything - but fear got the better of me. I am now taking Tamoxifen and Effexor (although Effexor only helps a tiny bit). Have tried, Catapress, Lyrica, Zoloft (all caused serious issues) and just weaned myself of 3 Gabapentin a day due to having had 2 serious falls for no real reason in the last 6 weeks (only been on for about 7 weeks). Both my surgeon and my oncologist have suggested taking HRT if the Gabapentin didn't work even though my breast cancer is Oestrogen positive. Their rationale is that they are now prescribing Tamoxifen to young women with a significant risk of BC and the way in which it works (in layman's terms) is the Tamoxifen binds to the oestrogen and therefore the oestrogen doesn't get the same opportunity to attach to BC cells or something similar. My risk of BC only increasingly slightly with the HRT. I am contemplating this and have been prescribed an Estalis patch to try. If it is assumed safe for young women to use with high levels of oestrogen in their bodies, surely it should be okay for someone at menopause as long as they are taking their Tamoxifen reilgously? Has anyone else gone down this road - I would welcome any feedback. Thanks
