Interview
with Neil Love, MD from Breast Cancer Update for Medical Oncologists,
Program 1 2000
Play
Audio Below:
Although
the data is that you get hot flashes on Arimidex, it’s pretty
rare - at least pretty rare that patients complain of them to me.
I think the only thing that is seen, unusually, but is seen is perhaps
a little bit of queasiness. But, otherwise it’s quite well
tolerated - it’s extremely well tolerated. There should be
gynecologic symptoms, and in the studies there are, but they don’t
tend to be a big an issue. Now, that maybe, because virtually every
woman in my practice on Arimidex other than those on the ATAC trial
or the trial we are talking about, they all had tamoxifen before
hand, and so they’ve come off tamoxifen and gone on Arimidex.
And, so perhaps by comparison, anything they get gynecologically
or hot flash-wise seems so much less as to not be worthy of mention.
But, my clinical experience with the drug and, I’ve put a lot
of patients on it, is that other than perhaps some rare queasiness,
it’s pretty free of symptoms.
Relevant
Articles:
Anastrozole
versus tamoxifen as first-line therapy for advanced breast cancer
in 668 postmenopausal women: Results of the tamoxifen or arimidex
randomized group efficacy and tolerability study. Bonneterre,
J.; Thurlimann, B.; Robertson, J. F. R.; Krzakowski, M.; Mauriac,
L.; Koralewski, P.; Vergote, I.; Webster, A.; Steinberg, M., and
von Euler, M. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 18(22):3748-3757, 2000
Nov 15.
