Estrogen: A surprise treatment for metastatic breast cancer

Hindsfeet

I have no opinion...just came across this and wondered what you think about this. Hope this won't become a war...but a discussion. It would be nice if hormones played a posititve roll in our body as it seems it should.

Check out http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/12/healthmag.breast.cancer.estrogen/index.html

First few paragraphs reads....

Estrogen therapy is about the last thing you'd expect a doctor to prescribe for a woman with breast cancer: The hormone is famous for coaxing tumors to grow, not shrink. But in a new study, one out of three postmenopausal women with advanced cancer who were given a daily dose of estrogen saw their tumors slow to a stop, and in some cases, even get smaller.

Remarkable science, certainly, but the best part is being able to avoid chemotherapy drugs in a group of women who may have awful side effects without much benefit in terms of survival, says Matthew Ellis, M.D., Ph.D., an oncologist at Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, Missouri.

"I don't have to give them chemo," says Ellis with evident satisfaction, after presenting the study Thursday at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, in Texas. "They're not curable, so the question is, 'What can I give them to make them feel OK?'"

Why do these metastatic tumors react differently to estrogen than so many other tumors do? The 66 women in the St. Louis study had so-called estrogen-receptor-positive cancer (as do 75 to 80 percent of breast cancer patients), and it had become resistant to the estrogen-lowering aromatase inhibitor (AI) drugs they were taking. Health.com: How to cut your breast cancer risk at any age: A decade-by-decade guide

fairy49

Thanks Barry, great info, very interesting huh?? I have always been confused about the whole hormone thing, I think hormone balance is the key, not eliminating all of our estrogen, I am sure many will post and strongly disagree with me, however that is just my humble opinion!

hugs,

Lorraine ox

07rescue

This report reminds me how important it is to cycle treatments for all conditions, because the disease and body adapts over time to whatever intervention we use. In herbal medicine it is a rule that we advise either stopping the use of an intervention periodically, to restore the response to the treatment, or changing the treatment until the new treatment is also defeated by the disease.

One of the reasons I maintain a serious, persistent interest in alternative care is that I believe we need greatest the multiplicity of treatments we can find, so that people don't run out of options for treatment. Even treatments that do not offer cure, but may delay disease progression, are very valuable, especially since alternative care tends to be low tech and far less expensive than customary medical care. If later more curative measures can be restored to efficacy then there is a distinct value to a product.

Usually the more flexible and adaptive the approach, the greater the overall success of the treatment. Sometimes "success" is defined by improved quality of life, as this report of beneficial use of estrogen to restore estrogen sensitivity in metastatic breast cancer demonstrates.

Husband11

Very interesting.  I found this quote amazing.

 "Historically, women with breast cancer were treated with high doses of estrogen up until the 1970s, when the estrogen-blocking drug, tamoxifen, was found to be a much more effective way to slow cancer growth. "

Obviously there is still al lot not understood about the role of hormones in breast cancer.

 They mention this worked for 1/3 women in the study.  What did the added estrogen do to the other 2/3???  They didn't say did they?  I'm curious if it was simply ineffective, or if it caused an accelleration of their ER+ tumours?

Sher

Certainly makes you wonder about estrogen and how it can affect cancer tumor growth.  My first diagnosis I was ER/PR+ and was treated with lumpectomy, radiation and 5 years on Tamoxifen.  After that time I tried one of the AI's (can't remember which one) for a couple months but had a lot of pain, so didn't continue with it.  I already had pretty severe degenerative arthritis pain and my oncologist  said that after the 5 years on Tamoxifen, it wasn't proven that an AI would add any further or much increased benefit.  I think they were pretty new then.  Anyway, 3 1/2 years later, this past summer, I had a local recurrence  - same exact spot as original tumor, but this time it switched to ER/PR-.  So that left me wondering when the estrogen receptor changed - while I was still taking Tamoxifen or afterwards and what made it change?

CaseyDoodle

I am so confused on this issue, I don't know what to think anymore...

Husband11

I think its important to keep in mind exactly the group of women that this phenomena occured it.  These were women who had metastatic breast cancer, treated for a long time by AI's, whose cancer had then stopped responding positively to the AI's low estrogen environment.  And of those, 1/3 responded favorably (either tumor regression or no further growth) to the estrogen treatment for a (short?) period of time, after which AI's were then tried again.  This isn't general advice for ER+ breast cancer patients.

konakat

Thanks for posting this Barry!!  As a farm girl, it reminds me of leaving a field fallow so it regenerates.  Well, maybe not a great analogy but it comes to mind.  Very encouraging when one worries about running out of treatments -- to be able to cycle back would be wonderful!

Elizabeth