Radiation + Tamoxifen?!!!!

Danaqtr

Is there anyone here who been advised to start hormonal therapy such as tamoxifen one week after the surgery and even before radiation?!! Is it ok to have them both in same time? What I know is that after radiation then you can start tamoxifen. Your experience

Egads007

Hi Dana, your experience was exactly mine...surgery, tamoxifen a few weeks after and rads commencing 5 weeks later while on tamoxifen. Not really sure if this is a common protocol, but I suffered no ill effects.

gb2115

I think they often have you wait but I think I read somewhere that they really don't have to.

RT123

I am actually a Radiation Therapist and many women take Tamoxifen while on radiation. My mother just finished her radiation treatments and started taking Letrozole (another hormone drug) before she started her radiation treatments and all through her treatments. Radiation is very localized and only affects the area being treated. Tamoxifen will not interfere with radiation treatment.

RT123

I am actually a Radiation Therapist and many women take Tamoxifen while on radiation. My mother just finished her radiation treatments and started taking Letrozole (another hormone drug) before she started her radiation treatments and all through her treatments. Radiation is very localized and only affects the area being treated. Tamoxifen will not interfere with radiation treatment. If you have any concerns or questions though I would go over them with your Oncologist.

star2017

I started radiation one day after starting tamoxifen. I broke out in hives for the first couple weeks, but I’ve been fine since

PebblesV

The oncologist said tamoxifen was OK to take with radiation but then the radiologistbsais he preferred I wait to take tamoxifen until after radiation. I think because radiation has it’s own set of side effects as does tamoxifen and he mentioned it was better to keep them separate. Anyways that’s what I’m doing, radiation first. Tamoxifen once the radiation is done