Is it ok to be on tamoxifen intermitently?

mummy2one

Is it ok to be on tamoxifen intermitently?

mummy2one

Hi all,

I was diagnosed with Early BC at the age of 31 yrs old in 2006. I was a grade1/stage1/0 nodes/tumour size 2.2cm/and clear margins. I underwent 4 cycles of AC and 6wks of Radio, 2yrs of (monthly) zoladex injections ( to put my ovaries to sleep) and have been on tamoxifen since June 2007 which just recently I have had a lttle break from it for 6 weeks in Dec 2009 than went back on and now for 2wks been off it, is this safe to do?. My question is, is it ok to come on and off tamoxifen to have a break from the side effects? Does this affect the treatment and what it is supposed to be doing? I am a little worried if i am doing the right thing here but i am SO OVER IT and just want to live a normal life if you know what i mean. I would also like to get off it for good really soon so i can have another baby. It is too painful enough dealing with a BC diagnosis at a young age let alone fertlity issues and wanting children. I find it so hard to accept whats happened in my life and i find it so hard seeing all my friends/family/cousins/ and women all being pregnant and extending there families which i was planning to do back in 2006 before the UGLY CANCER came into my life. How does one cope with deciding either to give life or risk life, i wish things were a bit easier but they are not. All i here are negative and awful stories about BC ( i suppose i have to be realsitic about the bad stories too) but at the same time i don't want CANCER to ruin my plans and dreams either for a family of my own because there are some inspiring and wonderful positive stories how women have beaten this UGLY MONSTER and moved on with there lives and are living there lives the way they wanted it too. Bless this women with there courage and wonderful spirits too.

leaf

I'm so sorry you are going through this 'between a rock and a hard place' scenario.

In this study of women with postmenopausal ADVANCED breast cancer (which I know does not describe you)  they found: Intermittent T<tamoxifen 40mg daily> or intermittent/alternated T and MPA<medroxyprogesterone acetate> had no impact on PFS  <progression-free survival> or OS <overall survival> as compared with classical continuous T in patients with advanced breast cancer. Intermittent/alternated T and MPA resulted in prolonged time to resistance to T, but this might partly be due to bias by omittance of the proof of tamoxifen resistance in a high proportion of the patients in this treatment arm. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17045796

I am in a different situation than you are, but I stopped tamoxifen for 3 months under doctor's request.  I have LCIS and nothing worse. (One option for LCIS patients is watchful waiting.)  I also have an unusual disease which is a much bigger potential threat to my health, and the doc for that disease wanted me to try off of it for 3 months to see if there was any difference on my other disease.  (There wasn't, so I went back on tamoxifen.)

This paper opines The risk of discontinuing tamoxifen prematurely should be carefully evaluated using standardised tools.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19443211

I can't find studies about women in your particular situation.  It must be very, very difficult. I hope others will be along shortly to share their experiences. Best wishes to you and your decisions.