tamoxifen
Comments
-
The standard protocol is to start tamoxifen after the chemo and radiation.
Some people have taken tamoxifen right along with chemo before radiation and then continued thru the radiation with both. The latest annual ASCO meeting ( American Society of Clinical Oncologists ) reported that tamoxifen was more effective AFTER chemo. Nothing was said about taking it with radiation.
My oncologist said to start taking it with radiation - I looked all over the internet for guidelines and there were none. My doctor said that was because they didn't know whether it made a difference.
Well, I ignored him and stayed with the standard protocol - which after the fact did not seem to bother or interest him at all.
Later I read that some oncologists thought it was better not to combine the two because radiation needs active cells to kill - and tamoxifen puts them at rest. That is the same reason the latest report of ASCO in May '02 gave for keeping chemo and tamoxifen separate.
I'll be interested in what your doctors tell you to do - keep in touch.
Jean0 -
Thanks so much for the info. I forgot to ask my doc on Friday - too many other questions, so I'll ask him later this week and let you know what he says.jeancmici said:The standard protocol is to start tamoxifen after the chemo and radiation.
Some people have taken tamoxifen right along with chemo before radiation and then continued thru the radiation with both. The latest annual ASCO meeting ( American Society of Clinical Oncologists ) reported that tamoxifen was more effective AFTER chemo. Nothing was said about taking it with radiation.
My oncologist said to start taking it with radiation - I looked all over the internet for guidelines and there were none. My doctor said that was because they didn't know whether it made a difference.
Well, I ignored him and stayed with the standard protocol - which after the fact did not seem to bother or interest him at all.
Later I read that some oncologists thought it was better not to combine the two because radiation needs active cells to kill - and tamoxifen puts them at rest. That is the same reason the latest report of ASCO in May '02 gave for keeping chemo and tamoxifen separate.
I'll be interested in what your doctors tell you to do - keep in touch.
Jean0 -
I had 1 year of chemo and 6 weeks of radiation treatments for inflammatory breast cancer. I started taking Tamoxifen in Oct. 1997 after I finished radiation. I'm scheduled to stop taking the Tamoxifen in about 4 months. So far, I'm doing well. I wish you all the best.0
Discussion Boards
- All Discussion Boards
- 6 CSN Information
- 6 Welcome to CSN
- 121.2K Cancer specific
- 2.8K Anal Cancer
- 440 Bladder Cancer
- 306 Bone Cancers
- 1.6K Brain Cancer
- 28.4K Breast Cancer
- 391 Childhood Cancers
- 27.9K Colorectal Cancer
- 4.6K Esophageal Cancer
- 1.2K Gynecological Cancers (other than ovarian and uterine)
- 12.9K Head and Neck Cancer
- 6.3K Kidney Cancer
- 666 Leukemia
- 789 Liver Cancer
- 4.1K Lung Cancer
- 5.1K Lymphoma (Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin)
- 235 Multiple Myeloma
- 7.1K Ovarian Cancer
- 53 Pancreatic Cancer
- 486 Peritoneal Cancer
- 5.3K Prostate Cancer
- 1.2K Rare and Other Cancers
- 532 Sarcoma
- 718 Skin Cancer
- 647 Stomach Cancer
- 190 Testicular Cancer
- 1.5K Thyroid Cancer
- 5.8K Uterine/Endometrial Cancer
- 6.3K Lifestyle Discussion Boards