MRIs, Mammograms after taking Tamoxifen?

AWB took tamoxifen preventively but over a period of years. These are all great questions. Since your doctor prescribed it there must be something to that. How exciting to be a part of such a groundbreaking process. Please do let us know how it goes. I'll ask my radiologist these questions but my appt is next year. I personally don't have much breast tissue but would love to know about this for my DD's sake. I think you are getting cutting edge advice. Take care.

There is some research that has been done to try to determine whether the imaging of the patients for whom tamoxifen is more effective might show changes that could be used to help to decide whether the patient is having a response to the drug or not. (Google Karolinska Insitutut and tamoxifen.) IF that research proves reliable, then patients who are not responding to the drug could at least be taken off it and possibly switched to alternative treatment.

That research was not being done yet at the time I was treated. However, I pointed out at the time to the radiologist that my mammos had been very dense prior to starting tamoxifen and after completing chemotherapy, and that within 3 months of starting the tamoxifen my mammos showed they were very clear of density.

I am 13 years out from a stage 1 diagnosis as a HER2 grade 3 DCIS/IDC node-negative cancer patient, have never received Herceptin, and remain without evidence of disease. I hope the research continues and provides more information about who should be on tamoxifen and who is wasting their time on it.

Thanks, farmerlucy!

I should mention also that it may provide help in determining how long a given person would take the tamoxifen.

I probably could have quit taking it when my breasts became clear at 3 months, if their research turns out to be solid. As it was, I only took the tamoxifen for a year at full-dose and then 3/4 of a year at half-dose, which was just a personal decision, not a medically recommended one.

13 years out,

A.A.

Thanks for the average, MsVDB.

One drawback is that loss of breast density is due to the loss of the internal breast tissue support "framework", so the breasts sag. (The "framework" is what makes it hard to see cancer in dense breasts because the cancer and the "framework" are both white on mammos, which lets cancers hide even when they are "in plain sight".)

As I said, I hope the research continues and provides more information about who should be on tamoxifen and who is wasting their time on it. If on average it takes 18 months for density changes, I wonder how that relates to the basis for the recommendation for the average patient to be taking it for 10 years.