Anastrozole: Breast cancer treatment only!

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Anonymous
Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
edited November 2018 in Hormonal Therapy - Before, During, and After

I saw my oncologist today and was surprised to learn that Anastrozole only treats breast cancer. I obviously didn't understand that it wouldn't help prevent other possible cancers in the body. I'm disappointed.

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  • dtad
    dtad Member Posts: 2,323
    edited November 2018

    Hi there. Aromatase inhibitors such as Anastrozole treat hormone positive cancers. Not sure what you mean by it preventing other types of cancer. Do you mean like chemo might?

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited November 2018

    dtad, thanks for your explanation. I think I understand it more clearly. Are the breasts the only parts of the body that are subject to hormone positive cancers?

    I'm unaware how prone a breast cancer patient is to cancer appearing elsewhere in the body.

    Yes, I've understood that chemo works on cancer throughout the body but it hasn't been recommended for me.

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  • AliceBastable
    AliceBastable Member Posts: 3,461
    edited November 2018

    Two different goals. Radiation cleans up any stray cells in the breast. Chemo cleans up any stray cells throughout the body. Neither are for prevention of future recurrences or new other types of cancer; patients who have had chemo also are assigned anti-hormonals. The anti-hormonal pills are to (theoretically) prevent future recurrences of breast cancer, and, I assume, any new but unrelated breast cancers. I'm not sure if the anti-hormonals work on preventing any other cancers. It seems logical that they should help prevent some gynecological cancers, but I believe some of the anti-hormonals actually raise that risk . That's one to grill your MO about.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited November 2018

    Thanks AliceBastabl, A lot to digest! I will go over it when I see my oncologist in February. I touched on uterine cancer yesterday when I met with her butI can't say that she gave me a definitive answer. I recall saying, "should I have my gyn check every year?" and she said yes.

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