Hormone pills, do they work?

Diya

most of the forums I have read, people with endometrial cancer that have mets have gone through chemo and radiotherapy treatments. Has anyone had hormone pills? Did they help? What stage were you when you used it? Did you need any additional treatment?

NoTimeForCancer

Diya, hormone treatment is

Diya, hormone treatment is not recommended to some of us who have one of the aggressive forms of endometrial cancer.  It would be "feeding" the cancer not curing it.  While it is controversial to some, I also stay away from highly processed soy (soy protein isolates) as the body recognizes it as a hormone and not good for my cancer. 

Ask your gyn onc what your options are.  I am not a doctor and there may be reasons it would work for you.

Abbycat2

NoTimeForCancer said:

Diya, hormone treatment is

Diya, hormone treatment is not recommended to some of us who have one of the aggressive forms of endometrial cancer.  It would be "feeding" the cancer not curing it.  While it is controversial to some, I also stay away from highly processed soy (soy protein isolates) as the body recognizes it as a hormone and not good for my cancer. 

Ask your gyn onc what your options are.  I am not a doctor and there may be reasons it would work for you.

Yes, Diya, depending

Yes, Diya, depending on whether or not your uterine cancer is hormone receptor positive.  Women produce two female hormones, estrogen and progesterone.  Some cancers, like breast and uterine, feed off of these hormones and cause the cancers to grow.  These cancers are called hormone receptive positive.  There are medications that reduce and/or block the effects of estrogen or progesterone that a woman produces in her body.  The ones that block progesterone or more effective than the ones that block estrogen.  I was diagnosed with uterine papillary serous carcinoma and my particular cancer does not have the estrogen or progesterone receptors on the surface of the cancer cells, so I am considered estrogen and progesterone negative.  That means hormones would not treat my cancer at all.  I hope this explanation helps you.

Best Wishes,

Cathy

 

Diya

Abbycat2 said:

Yes, Diya, depending

Yes, Diya, depending on whether or not your uterine cancer is hormone receptor positive.  Women produce two female hormones, estrogen and progesterone.  Some cancers, like breast and uterine, feed off of these hormones and cause the cancers to grow.  These cancers are called hormone receptive positive.  There are medications that reduce and/or block the effects of estrogen or progesterone that a woman produces in her body.  The ones that block progesterone or more effective than the ones that block estrogen.  I was diagnosed with uterine papillary serous carcinoma and my particular cancer does not have the estrogen or progesterone receptors on the surface of the cancer cells, so I am considered estrogen and progesterone negative.  That means hormones would not treat my cancer at all.  I hope this explanation helps you.

Best Wishes,

Cathy

 

Thank you

thank you ladies for the info. It's been 4 days since we got the dreaded news of incurable endometrial cancer that has mets to lungs in my mum. since then I have been doing a lot of research and this site in particular is helping me emotionally and giving me a lot of useful knowledge. So a BIG thank you to all the wonderful ladies who contribute their knowledge and experiences and words of support to this forum. you are lifeline of so many! In these few days I feel I have gotten to know so many of you personally! I feel your highs and lows and want to just give you a big hug! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for probably being the only support that has helped me come to terms with it! im sending positive thoughts to all of you! I hope everyone beats this dreaded disease!

Diya

Diya said:

Thank you

thank you ladies for the info. It's been 4 days since we got the dreaded news of incurable endometrial cancer that has mets to lungs in my mum. since then I have been doing a lot of research and this site in particular is helping me emotionally and giving me a lot of useful knowledge. So a BIG thank you to all the wonderful ladies who contribute their knowledge and experiences and words of support to this forum. you are lifeline of so many! In these few days I feel I have gotten to know so many of you personally! I feel your highs and lows and want to just give you a big hug! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for probably being the only support that has helped me come to terms with it! im sending positive thoughts to all of you! I hope everyone beats this dreaded disease!

Letrozole

it seems my mum is er+ pr-. She has been given Letrozole. So far my reading indicates it does not have very good stats. Keeping fingers crossed for her that it works!

NoTimeForCancer

Diya said:

Thank you

thank you ladies for the info. It's been 4 days since we got the dreaded news of incurable endometrial cancer that has mets to lungs in my mum. since then I have been doing a lot of research and this site in particular is helping me emotionally and giving me a lot of useful knowledge. So a BIG thank you to all the wonderful ladies who contribute their knowledge and experiences and words of support to this forum. you are lifeline of so many! In these few days I feel I have gotten to know so many of you personally! I feel your highs and lows and want to just give you a big hug! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for probably being the only support that has helped me come to terms with it! im sending positive thoughts to all of you! I hope everyone beats this dreaded disease!

Diya, your mother is a lucky

Diya, your mother is a lucky woman to have such a caring daughter.  It speaks volumes as to how wonderful she is.  We say it here often, you (your mother in this case) is a statistic of one. 

You and your family are in my thoughts. 

HellieC

Diya said:

Letrozole

it seems my mum is er+ pr-. She has been given Letrozole. So far my reading indicates it does not have very good stats. Keeping fingers crossed for her that it works!

Letrozole does work!

Please don't look at the stats!  I took Letrozole for recurrence in the pelvis. I'm evidence that it can work!  I had recurrence on the pelvic sidewall.  It shrunk the tumour and kept it stable for 15 months before it started to grow again. My oncologist says she has some ladies who are still responding to it after more than 4 years.  My tumour is ER+ and PR+.  Next they tried progesterone, but that didn't work (surprising, as the tumour has progesterone receptors), then we went onto tamoxifen - again the tumour shrunk and this hormone therapy, in combination with Cyberknife treatment to the tumour in Oct 14 has shrunk it again and is keeping things under control.  Keeping everything crossed for you!

Kindest wishes
Helen

Diya

HellieC said:

Letrozole does work!

Please don't look at the stats!  I took Letrozole for recurrence in the pelvis. I'm evidence that it can work!  I had recurrence on the pelvic sidewall.  It shrunk the tumour and kept it stable for 15 months before it started to grow again. My oncologist says she has some ladies who are still responding to it after more than 4 years.  My tumour is ER+ and PR+.  Next they tried progesterone, but that didn't work (surprising, as the tumour has progesterone receptors), then we went onto tamoxifen - again the tumour shrunk and this hormone therapy, in combination with Cyberknife treatment to the tumour in Oct 14 has shrunk it again and is keeping things under control.  Keeping everything crossed for you!

Kindest wishes
Helen

HellieC

thank you for the info. It gives me some hope! i will keep my fingers crossed that it works for her. And also for you that you beat this disease soon and become healthy!

lots of positive thoughts for you.

diya

Diya

NoTimeForCancer said:

Diya, your mother is a lucky

Diya, your mother is a lucky woman to have such a caring daughter.  It speaks volumes as to how wonderful she is.  We say it here often, you (your mother in this case) is a statistic of one. 

You and your family are in my thoughts. 

Notimeforcancer

thankyou for telling me about "statistic of one". I now remind this to myself each day everytime we talk numbers or prognosis or anything for that matter! and then stats do not matter :-)

txtrisha55

Diya said:

Notimeforcancer

thankyou for telling me about "statistic of one". I now remind this to myself each day everytime we talk numbers or prognosis or anything for that matter! and then stats do not matter :-)

Statistic of One!

Best statement ever. It has benn stated several times on this site. Jan uses to tell me that a lot.  What all those statistics tell you is like averaging out all the cases they know of but because of what you do and your attitude can change everything about you so the statistics of all do not matter. Wising you the best. trish

Caradavin

I was given hormone therapy

I was given hormone therapy for my endometrial cancer and it worked. However, I later found I had cervical cancer and it is possible that the endometrial cancer was cervical in origin. I had to have a total hysterectomy later.  However, I was cancer free for almost a year from the endometrial cancer. The reason I used hormone treatment was because I was in a beginning stage of the cancer and I was trying to have children, which ended up not working out in the end. My point is that hormone treatment can be effective.

Diya

Caradavin said:

I was given hormone therapy

I was given hormone therapy for my endometrial cancer and it worked. However, I later found I had cervical cancer and it is possible that the endometrial cancer was cervical in origin. I had to have a total hysterectomy later.  However, I was cancer free for almost a year from the endometrial cancer. The reason I used hormone treatment was because I was in a beginning stage of the cancer and I was trying to have children, which ended up not working out in the end. My point is that hormone treatment can be effective.

Caradavin

thankyou for the info. How are you doing now? Hope the hysterectomy helped you become cancer free! Best wishes to you.