Estrogen receptor

Fayard said:

JoAnn
I am a little confused. I am assuming my production of estrogen ended with the removal of all my reproductive organ, so this inhibits the growth of any type of cancer alike.

I am guessing the suppressant for breast cancer is needed because as long as we have our reproductive organ, and period, we are producing estrogen. right?

estrogen production....
....does not end even with the removal of one's reproductive organs. I do think that progesterone production stops, but not estrogen.

Fayard said:

I did not know that. I have
I did not know that. I have an appointment on November 2 with my onco.
I will ask him about it.

Gracias!

Pregnenolone
JoAnn is sort of correct--estrogen production does not stop with the removal of ovaries. Nor does progesterone or testosterone. The "mother of all sex hormones" is pregnenolone. Do a Google search on the pregnenolone pathway and you will see that sex hormones must be pretty important if there are more than one pathway by which they are produced.

I think it makes sense to at least ask for a blood test for hormone levels including free and total testosterone levels. Maybe you can get your family doctor to check your hormone levels.

My oncologist seems to have blinders on regarding hormone therapy...sigh.

daisy366 said:

My doc ordered hormone
My doc ordered hormone testing on my tissue to determine ER/PR sensitivity - mine was mostly negative. That's what I'm going on. I agree with Jan that docs are trained to TREAT with medicine, tests, etc.

Daisy366
Was you tumor also tested for the EGFR gene? If, so was your results negative or positive?

Pat

carolenk said:

Megace is an appetite stimlulant
JoAnn

Megace is a synthetic progesterone. I think one of it's primary anti-cancer uses was to protect women on HRT from getting endometrial cancer. The exact way Megace works is not really understood but you could think of it as a hormone suppressor or anti-estrogen therapy.

What concerns me about the drug is that it has the potential to flip a pre-diabetic into diabetes. It given with recurrent or metastatic cancer as as palliative treatment only. I think doctors want to prescribe SOMETHING for patients--they hate to say "there's nothing left to give you."

The literature on Megace list it as having steroid-like effects and that abrupt withdrawal of it can be dangerous due to adrenal suppression. I would feel safer on Arimidex--even though it probably costs a fortune.

It doesn't have that effect on everyone
Dear Carolenk,

I had a reaction similar to what you write here, regarding Megace, when my oncologist prescribed it to me last month following disappointing CT results. My sense originally was that it was being offered as a last resort.

When I confronted my oncologist about it, however, she countered by saying that she has had patients on Megace and nothing else for 10 years. While they still have evidence of disease, they're no worse--and that's definitely a result I could live with. Furthermore, she said that I do have other treatment options (in particular, other chemo agents), but why not try Megace since I am strongly ER and PR+, and it's a relatively easy remedy to tolerate?

So we'll see in December when I have my next CT scan. Meanwhile, I'm also doing a ton of other complementary therapies, so I am not exactly putting all my eggs in this basket, so to speak.

And as I noted in my subject line, I am not dealing with increased appetite at all, despite having switched to a vegan diet.

It behooves us all to acknowledge that while these drugs are indeed dangerous and their mechanisms are often not well-understood, that some of them do work reasonably well for some of us, for some good amount of time. Would that we had something that worked for everyone, every time.

daisy366 said:

Pat
Hi,

My original tissue was tested for hormone sensitivity - not sure if this is EFGR - results were slightly positive, mostly negative. My doc said that hormone treatment would not be effective for me.

Mary Ann (Daisy)

EGFR
EGFR (Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor)