Is Evista the answer?

draw
draw Member Posts: 2
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
I have had dcis and have to have another partial mastectomy. I have been on Evista for three years.
How can they say it helps against breast cancer.I am not taking it anymore. Are there any others out there that have been taking it prior to learning they had breast cancer?

Comments

  • tlmac
    tlmac Member Posts: 272 Member
    It's so disheartening to take a drug you trust will protect you from cancer only to find it didn't work. Despite advances in the development of drugs like Raloxifene, Tamoxifen, Arimidex and Femara, none of them work 100% of the time for everyone. A good friend, taking Tamoxifen for the past 2 years, was just told her cancer has now spread to abdominal lymph nodes and liver. Evista was originally developed as a treatment for osteoporosis. It was found to lower the risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis but I'm surprised, with much better drugs available, that it was prescribed to you for that reason. All of us taking drugs to prevent recurrance pray they work but live with the reality that they might not. I'm so sorry you have to face this diagnosis a second time but pray that everything goes well with your surgery.
    terri
  • draw
    draw Member Posts: 2
    tlmac said:

    It's so disheartening to take a drug you trust will protect you from cancer only to find it didn't work. Despite advances in the development of drugs like Raloxifene, Tamoxifen, Arimidex and Femara, none of them work 100% of the time for everyone. A good friend, taking Tamoxifen for the past 2 years, was just told her cancer has now spread to abdominal lymph nodes and liver. Evista was originally developed as a treatment for osteoporosis. It was found to lower the risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis but I'm surprised, with much better drugs available, that it was prescribed to you for that reason. All of us taking drugs to prevent recurrance pray they work but live with the reality that they might not. I'm so sorry you have to face this diagnosis a second time but pray that everything goes well with your surgery.
    terri

    Thank you for your imput I have been on Evista for Osteo because I could not take fosamax. They are doing a study on women with Evista and Tamoxifen to see which one is working against new
    cancer. I would not want to take either one. Evista did not help me.
  • Carrottop
    Carrottop Member Posts: 7
    Well, I have had dcis, too, and had been taking Evista for several years. I only took in every other day. Now I am taking it everyday. I actually statrted taking it to prevent Osteo. It didn't do a thing to prevent cancer. Who knows if it will do anything for osteo either! Time will tell, I guess. Best of luck, Carrot-top.