What happens if you take Femara for 10 years?
A study has found that taking Femara for 10 years instead of 5: reduces the risk of a new breast cancer being diagnosed in the opposite breast (contralateral breast cancer)
How effective is Femara for breast cancer treatment?
A study has found that taking Femara for 10 years instead of 5: reduces the risk of recurrence. reduces the risk of a new breast cancer being diagnosed in the opposite breast (contralateral breast cancer)
How long can you live on letrozole (Femara)?
Treatment with aromatase inhibitors like letrozole (Femara) can extend the length of time for a breast cancer recurrence or breast cancer spreading in the body. In one study, over 70% of women had a disease-free survival period for up to 8 years.
How much did you pay for Femara?
To cut long saga, I had 6months of the real McCoy Femara and paid 125 pounds monthly for the private script. Side effects lessened a lot. I did lots of research and discovered the same company who make Femara also make another letrozole called sandoz.
How long should you take Femara for breast cancer?
Most people are given letrozole for 5 years, but some will take it for up to 10 years. Common side effects can be like menopause symptoms and include hot flushes, difficulty sleeping, tiredness and low mood. Side effects usually improve after a few months as your body gets used to the medicine.
What happens after 5 years of taking letrozole?
An additional 5 years of letrozole resulted in a 34% reduction in the risk of recurrence, with no worsening of quality of life. No new side effects or emergent symptoms were reported with extending letrozole for another 5 years.
How effective is Femara for breast cancer?
Women received an additional 24 months of treatment with Femara or placebo (inactive treatment). Results showed that Femara, when compared to the placebo group, lengthened disease-free survival by 42% (the time before the cancer returned) and reduced the time before the cancer spread in the body.
Does letrozole stop cancer coming back?
Study Confirms Letrozole Prevents More Breast Cancer Recurrences than Tamoxifen. Adapted from the NCI Cancer Bulletin.
What are the long term side effects of letrozole?
Side effects that are more likely to take a few months to develop and persist long term include:blood changes, such as decreases in white blood cell counts or platelets.edema (swelling that usually affects your hands, feet, legs, or arms)hair loss.high cholesterol.More items…•
What happens to your body when you stop taking letrozole?
Stopping letrozole Some people worry about stopping their treatment, but there’s evidence that letrozole continues to reduce the risk of breast cancer coming back for many years after you stop taking it. However, not taking the drug for the recommended time may increase the risk of your breast cancer coming back.
What type breast cancer has the highest recurrence rate?
Research suggests that estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer is more likely to come back more than five years after diagnosis.
How much does letrozole reduce cancer recurrence?
There was also a statistically significant 26% reduction in breast cancer–free interval events (3% absolute improvement) and a statistically significant 29% reduction in distant recurrences (1.8% absolute improvement) with letrozole, Dr. Mamounas reported at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Does letrozole stop breast cancer?
Letrozole lowers the levels of the female sex hormone oestrogen in the body. Oestrogen stimulates some breast cancers to grow. These breast cancers are called hormone sensitive or hormone receptor positive. Letrozole can stop or slow the growth of these cancers.
What are the chances of estrogen positive breast cancer coming back?
The risk for recurrence of ER-positive breast cancers persists for a prolonged period, with approximately 50% of recurrences occurring 5 years after initial diagnosis. Results of several randomized trials suggest that extending adjuvant endocrine treatment beyond 5 years can improve disease-free survival (DFS).
Can breast cancer recur while on hormone therapy?
Most patients with hormone-receptor (HR)-positive early breast cancer benefit from adjuvant hormone therapy [Cutter et al. 2011]. Unfortunately, recurrence develops in some cases during adjuvant hormone therapy.
Which is worse tamoxifen or letrozole?
Background. The aromatase inhibitor letrozole is a more effective treatment for metastatic breast cancer and more effective in the neoadjuvant setting than tamoxifen.
Does letrozole increase life expectancy?
Life expectancy: The study found no differences between letrozole and the placebo in terms of life expectancy. Severe side effects: There was also no difference in terms of severe side effects. About 15 out of 100 women experienced these during the treatment.
Can you take letrozole for more than 10 years?
Letrozole is usually taken for 5 years, but may be recommended for up to 10 years depending on individual circumstances. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recommends that 10 years should be the maximum duration of therapy, based on their 2019 clinical practice guideline update.
Who should take letrozole for 10 years?
It’s only prescribed in women whose breast cancer is hormone receptor positive. Letrozole is usually taken for five years, although some women take letrozole for five years after completing five years of the hormone therapy tamoxifen.
How much does letrozole reduce the risk of recurrence?
There was also a statistically significant 26% reduction in breast cancer–free interval events (3% absolute improvement) and a statistically significant 29% reduction in distant recurrences (1.8% absolute improvement) with letrozole, Dr. Mamounas reported at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
How long does Femara last?
improved overall survival. So researchers wanted to know if taking an aromatase inhibitor for 10 years would offer more benefits than taking one for 5 years. A study has found that taking Femara for 10 years instead of 5: reduces the risk of recurrence.
How old were the women treated with Femara?
The women ranged in age from about 60 to about 72 years old. About 80% of them were treated with tamoxifen before they were treated with 5 years of an aromatase inhibitor.
What is the best treatment for breast cancer?
There are several types of hormonal therapy medicines. Tamoxifen, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), is one of the most well-known. Tamoxifen can be used to treat both premenopausal and postmenopausal women.
What is the treatment for breast cancer after surgery?
Hormonal therapy given after surgery is called adjuvant hormonal therapy. Hormonal therapy medicines work in two ways:
Which is more effective, Femara or Arimidex?
Arimidex (chemical name: anastrozole) Aromasin (chemical name: exemestane) Femara (chemical name: letrozole) were shown to be more effective at reducing recurrence risk in postmenopausal women and are now used more often than tamoxifen to treat women who’ve gone through menopause.
Does Femara cause bone thinning?
Like all hormonal therapy medicines, Femara can cause side effects, including bone thinning and weakening, a higher-than-average risk of broken bones, fatigue, bone and joint pain, and hot flashes.
When was Aromatase-Inhibitor Adjuvant Therapy published?
The research was published online on June 5, 2016 by the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting on June 6, 2016: Read “Extending Aromatase-Inhibitor Adjuvant Therapy to 10 Years,” in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Why is letrozole given after breast surgery?
Letrozole is usually given after surgery to reduce the risk of breast cancer coming back or spreading.
When do you start taking letrozole?
Some people start taking letrozole after a few years of taking the hormone therapy drug tamoxifen .
Can you stop taking letrozole for breast cancer?
However, not taking the drug for the recommended time may increase the risk of your breast cancer coming back. If you’re thinking about stopping taking letrozole for any reason, talk to your specialist first. Sometimes it may be possible to change to another hormone drug.
How long does it take to take Femara?
Femara is usually started on day three or four of your monthly cycle (the first day of your monthly cycle is the first day of your period) and then taken for five days.
What is Femara used for?
Femara (letrozole) is a prescription medication used for the treatment of breast cancer and it is also commonly used off-label to treat ovulation problems including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and unexplained infertility.
How long does it take for a woman to ovulate after taking a pill?
It is usually started on day three or four of your monthly cycle (the first day of your monthly cycle is the first day of your period) and then you ovulate about four to seven days after taking the last of the five pills. This means that if you started the pills on day one of your period then you should ovulate between days nine to twelve.
What is Femara?
Femara has active ingredients of letrozole. It is often used in breast cancer. eHealthMe is studying from 16,589 Femara users for its effectiveness, alternative drugs and more.
What is Breast cancer?
Breast cancer is found to be associated with 2,035 drugs and 1,325 conditions by eHealthMe.
How to use the study?
You can discuss the study with your doctor, to ensure that all drug risks and benefits are fully discussed and understood.
How the study uses the data?
The study is based on letrozole (the active ingredients of Femara) and Femara (the brand name). Other drugs that have the same active ingredients (e.g. generic drugs) are not considered. Dosage of drugs is not considered in the study neither.
Who is eHealthMe?
With medical big data and proven AI algorithms, eHealthMe provides a platform for everyone to run phase IV clinical trials. We study millions of patients and 5,000 more each day. Results of our real-world drug study have been referenced on 600+ peer-reviewed medical publications, including The Lancet, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, and Nature.
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Re: Side effects of femara
I too have muscle and joint pain. Have you ever suffered from constipation as well? I seem to have upset stomach and some gassiness as well. I started letrozole in April 2020 so haven’t been on it long. Hopefully, it improves soon.
Re: Side effects of femara
Thank you for such an honest and forthright post. I have just started taking Letrozole Cipla brsnd and am dreading the side effects, even considered whether to trust to luck and ditch them but after your post i will try to persevere. However hang in there as they are find more and more mecications that might be just round the corner.
Re: Side effects of femara
I’ve been and letrozole for about 2 months and was really feeling a bit smug as I has minimal side effects apart from a bit of night flushes which I feIt I could deal with. Then Boom! Woke up with horrible clicky feeling in my hands – nobody mentioned THIS at the clinic but I now realise it’s really common.
Re: Side effects of femara
I wasn’t offered anastrozole so can’t say, the other things I take that I really think help is a vitamin D supliment and Curcumin (Tumeric) and Black Pepper supplements i think this has also helped me.
Re: Side effects of femara
I am thinking of trying anastrozole only because tamoxafin has same side effects as letrozole. I have been in pain for 18 months thought it was from a fall not realizing it was the medication.
Re: stopping femara temporarily because of side effects
i had terrible side effects with Letrozole, couldn’t use my hands both thumbs and two fingers got trigger fingers my brain was like a fog! So the said to try Extremestane this made no difference still awful!
Re: stopping femara temporarily because of side effects
I have been off it 6 weeks pain has lessened a lot still having trouble walking very far, did you ever heal completely with no pain?