Take Anastrazole with radiation therapy or wait till after?

fihtermom

Hi All,

My mom who just completed her radiation therapy yesterday is getting conflicting advice from her radiation oncologist and her Medical Oncologist so wanted to get your opinion.

My mother has been prescribed anastrazole as her tumor (2.5 cm with one lymph node involved) was ER positive (100%). She just finished her radiation therapy yesterday and her skin is in pretty bad shape. Her MO wants her to start anastrazole ASAP but her rad. onco. has told her to wait for at least a week before starting the endocrine therapy as she expects her radiation side effects to peak a week to two later after the end of the radiation therapy and she didn't want the medication to cause more problems. I wonder if there is also an interaction between the radiation and the anastrazole which could increase the side effects?

Is it OK to wait or should we start the medication ASAP? It has been a total of 10 weeks since her lumpectomy and hormone therapy has not been started yet. Anyone else been in a similar situation?

Thanks so much!

proudtospin

I was told to start after the radiation but do not think a day or so will make any dif

I ended rads Fri before Xmas and was told to start after the holiday...only I was too tired to ask which holiday so I decided on the middle as in between Xmas and NYears

think my MO wanted me to have a bit of rest between

Lee7

My MO and RO both agree it was fine to take Anastrozole during radiation which I did. I don't remember feeling any side effects of anastrozole, like joint pain until months later.

NancyD

I actually started taking Arimidex a few weeks before I started my radiation treatments and continued to take it all through radiation. I haven't heard of any skin irritation side effects from Arimidex, and that would be the main reason I could see not combining the two treatments. I had no problem with the two running concurrently.

ruthbru

Finished radiation on a Thursday, started Arimidex the next day.