Survival rate with hormonal therapy drugs ??

Yea, you not on yr own there, i get so tired  doing a simple meanigful task.  i am on tamox for five years and /still on my first, 4 2 go. i feel like 100 some days. I was told it was life line, well my other life line, i am also on thyroid and if i don't have that, nothing will function, but have had that all my life, this is just an added bonus, or is it. it is designed to prevent recurrance in my case 85%, 15 of that been a possibility of recurrance, that was the stats she gave me, combind with the rads, did not have chemo. I did not have chemo as the stats showed only a 7% chance of been any use to me compared to the s/e. so nobody can really tell what the survival rates are with these drugs. Probably not much help to you sorry.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/08/19/idUS222225+19-Aug-2009+PRN20090819

ForestGirl,

There's a lot of good research on hormonal treatment on the main site.  Here's a link:

http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/hormonal/new_research/

I've been on Femara for about two and a half years.  I have side effecs, but they're  at the nuisance level.  My MO was very straight forward about side effects and gave me the FDA notice on the drug before I got the prescription. She let me know that  we could change drugs if necessary to mitigate side effects.

As  has already been mentioned there are tools available to predict how effective specific treatments are given a cancer's profile (cancermath, ajuvant online).   Talk with your treatment team to assure that you are getting the most effective treatmetn for your situation.

My particular timor was 100% ER+ and 100%PR+ with a 0 score on HER2.   I had a node involvement and LVI, after chemo and radiation, I was totally on board with starving out any cancer cells that had survived -- since the evidence pointed to them feasting on estrogen.

Everybody's different in their tolerance to treatment and the "personality" of their cancer. We all make the best decison with the information we have at the time.  I haven't had side effects that make me feel like I'm ninety -- althourgh at 62 , I'm no spring chicken.

Talk to you team.  Get the results from the tools.  Consider going on the medication to see what the side effects may be for you and see if it's a reasonable trade off for the  benefit they give you.

As my MO reminds me there are no guarantees, we can only give it our best shot.

All the Best.

Not everyone has side effects. I've been taking tamoxifen since early April and have had NONE. I'm pretty athletic, which may be helping me, but still.  I consider it just another supplement to stack the odds in my favor, considering I was highly ER/PR+ and node + as well. Did chemo, rads, had lumpectomy, clear margins, blah blah blah.  

I take it along with my daily aspirin (also an anti-recurrence drug) and curcumin (and another anti-cancer supplement) and never think about it, except that I'm glad it's there for me to take. I think it's all in the way you look at it.  If you think it's horrible, it may well be. If you turn that negative into a positive, it's probably easier to take.

Claire in AZ

Did you have the Oncotype test done? It is everything you're asking for.....your MO should order it.

I agree with Racy, check out Cancer Math

http://www.lifemath.net/cancer/

My MO pro-actively shared the survival/outcomes statistics with me so I could make an informed decision on my treatment. (i.e. the "benefit" of different treatments). If you feel you aren't getting the right info from your MO, maybe time to consider switching or at least getting a second opinion????

I just went to Cancermath. Taking Tamox or AI improves my recurrence odds by about 2%. If that's right, it's not worth it if the SE's are bad.

I can't get their graphs to display correctly.

The cancermath site is data-driven from the SEER database of breast cancer cases from 1987-2007. It says "greater weight" is given to more recent patients. All it is is data, so of course it's trustworthy but can be "off" for your case because it can't take into account all possible variables and it also doesn't use data more recent than 2007. (It also states that the percentages are within about +-2%.)Tamoxifen has been shown many times to reduce risk of recurrence by between 40% and 50%. The cancermath site lists death rates, not recurrence rates, and seems quite accurate. It says I have a 5.5% chance of dying from breast cancer in the next 15 years with Tamoxifen, 8.1% chance without. My Oncotype results are very similar. This fits the 40% reduction of risk.

artista - generations of chemo have to do with age, strength and combination of these drugs, this has nothing to do with the stage of the patient. AC-T is Adriamycin, Cytoxan, Taxol. It is written as CA 4 T4, meaning 4 dose dense infusions of Adriamycin with Cytoxan, and 4 dose dense infusions of Taxol. Taxol can also be given weekly, smaller dose and sometimes more easily tolerated than dose dense. You will not receive this regimen together, the AC will be given together, and then when all of your doses are complete you will receive the Taxol. TAC is usually Taxotere, Adriamycin, Cytoxan - which is not a very common combination. And yes, the 4 and 6 have to do with how many infusions - Taxotere Cytoxan is usually 4 infusions, Taxotere and Carboplatin is usually 6. Currently used chemo regimens for breast cancer, stage II can be found on page 42/43 of the NCCN guidelines linked below:

http://www.nccn.org/patients/guidelines/stage_i_ii...