FEMARA

6cats and marijen, the women in that study were not only 3Bs, also women with metastatic disease and local recurrence that could not be operated. They were given an AI as firstline treatment, i.e, not surgery or chemo

No... I'd leave it up. I think it is important for people to take the time to read studies. This just shows how easy it is to miss vital details.

I told my sister today with all statistics I am a unit of one. The stats may not apply to my situation. Or I may be an outlier.

I agree - leave it up. When a post is just deleted (unless you happen to accidently post the same post immediately) it always makes it seem strange. Leave it so those who read through this Thread can see your post and understand why the posts have been written.

Ok, I'll leave it up. I didn't realize it applied only to Stage IIIwhen I put it up.

Marijen- you mean stage III in your last post.

Steph, I have no idea. Sorry! They have chemically shut your ovaries down, so it seems logical that blood work would indicate ovarian failure. I didn't want the shots, so I had them yank the ovaries. My onc thought it was extreme, but in spite of the downside to being booted into menopause that way, it has worked for me. My mother had ovarian cancer and my aunt had uterine cancer, so because of the latter I was not inclined to take tamox, and because of the former, I prefer not having to worry about ovarian cancer.

Oh just find out I will be switched to Aromasin instead of Femara. Still want to say thank you again!

Published in OncologyJournal Scan / Research · July 11, 2017

Endocrine Therapy Does Not Benefit Borderline ER-Positive Primary Breast Cancer Patients

BACKGROUND

Endocrine responsiveness of primary breast cancers with borderline estrogen receptor expression (ER+ (1-9%)) remains unclear. We aimed at investigating differences in endocrine responsiveness, prognosis and clinicopathological characteristics between ER+ (1-9%) cohort and ER-negative cohort or ER+ (≥10%) cohort.

METHODS

Eligible literatures published from inception to November 20, 2016 were retrieved in the PubMed database based on PRISMA guidelines. Data on survival outcomes were extracted and pooled odds ratios (ORs), 95% confident intervals (95% CIs) and two-tailed P were reported. P values of Chi-square test for comparison of clinicopathological characteristics among included patients in ER+ (1-9%) cohort and the other two cohorts were calculated respectively.

RESULTS

The analysis included 6 studies with 16606 patients. Significant differences were detected between ER+ (1-9%) cohort and the other two cohorts based on clinicopathological characteristics respectively. When taking all the patients into analysis without consideration of treatment modality, ER+ (1-9%) cohort presented better prognosis than ER-negative group in terms of 5-year DFS (OR=1.47, P=0.046) and 5-year OS (OR=1.23, P=0.046). However, patients with ER+ (1-9%) breast cancer receiving endocrine therapy seemed to have similar prognosis as those without any endocrine therapy (P=0.684) and those with ER-negative carcinoma receiving endocrine therapy (P=0.145). Patients with ER+ (≥10%) tumors had better endocrine responsiveness compared to ER+ (1-9%) counterparts (OR=0.52, P=0.034, ER+ (1-9%) versus ER+ (≥10%)).

CONCLUSION

Our results indicate that primary breast cancer patients with ER+ (1-9%) expression gained no significant survival benefit from endocrine therapy, but manifested overall better prognosis than those with ER-negative cancer.

You're welcome bravepoint but check with your Dr? I think hand numbness is the least of my problems. It's all over pain,my eyes and vitreous clouding, premature aging, and cognition I worry about. And problems I don't know about yet. I am 90/40%.

i have been on zoladex for 7 months and femera for 4 months. Bone pain is terrible. I feel like a 90 yr old women. I am getting conflicting info my gyn md says bone aches are definately from the zoladex but my oncologist says definately from the femera. Maybe it is from being on both, but has anyone been on both. And which do you think is responsible for the terrible pain?

I've been on letrozole for three months. My fingernails break easily and look awful. Will this last the entire time I am on this or will it get better with time? Trying to put moisture back in my hair too but no product seems to work. Ideas?

My nails are a mess, too. They break and peel. MO says it isn't letrozole, but I don't agree. I had hard, strong, LONG fingernails before the medication. My PCP has me taking 5000mcg of biotin. I have been on it for 3 months now and my nails look a little better, but not much. They still peel, but don't seem to be growing.

Femara/letrozole was poison to me. Just horrible. I took it for just less than a month - have been off of it for about three months - and new SE's (pain in left foot, swelling ankles, trigger fingers, nail issues, etc.) are now occurring despite my weaning from this drug. Prior to letrozole, I took (generic) anastrozole then Arimidex and suffered debilitating SE's. Combined, it was less than a year on AI's. I've read some articles in medical journals that say SE's could go on for years and possibly an entire lifetime, even if a patient has stopped taking the AI's. This is really scary to me given the SE's I've been through and keep having. I'm the one who finally said to the MO - enough is enough - I'm not taking these drugs.

My question - does your MO ever take blood to measure hormone levels or monitor anything else? My MO has never drawn a blood sample or done any tests.

Hi everyone...most MOs do not test hormone levels. IMO its a huge gap in our treatment plan. Many times you have to rely on your PCP, gynecologist or endocrinologist to get it done. Also some have it done by naturopathic docs. Most MOs know very little about female hormones and yet they are the ones prescribing these powerful anti hormones! Just don't get it. We have to be our own advocates. Good luck to all navigating this complicated disease.

it is safe to take up to 10mg of Biotin and that's what I take. My nails are in good shape and my thinning hair slowed down and is getting thicker. I've been on femara since 1/16 along with Ibrance. Hope the Biotin helps others as it has me