One in three women are at risk of breast cancer
- Tamoxifen is meant to be offered to women who have either had breast cancer
- The 6p a day pills have been shown to reduce the risk of the deadly disease
- But a study found that a third stopped the pills before this recommended time
Sophie Borland Health Editor For The Daily Mail
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Thousands of women are giving up on pills to prevent breast cancer in the mistaken belief they are causing debilitating side effects, researchers warn.
Tamoxifen is meant to be offered to women who have either had breast cancer or are at very high risk due to their family history.
The 6p a day pills have been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer occurring by 30 per cent and they are prescribed for five years.
But a study led by Queen Mary, University of London, involving almost 4,000 women found that a third stopped the pills before this recommended time.
This included 12 per cent who gave up within 18 months, mostly in the belief that they were suffering severe side effects.
Tamoxifen is meant to be offered to women who have either had breast cancer or are at very high risk due to their family history
Intriguingly, the research also studied women who had taken dummy pills – placebos – and they also experienced the same side effects as those on Tamoxifen.
These included hot flushes, nausea, sickness and some gynaecological symptoms which are also the main signs of the menopause.
Wrongly blamed
Researchers believe many women are wrongly blaming Tamoxifen for normal age or menopause related symptom, and stopping the drug,
Around one in eight women will develop breast cancer during their lifetime and experts believe Tamoxifen and similar drugs have the potential to prevent many new cases.
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The pills work by blocking the hormone oestrogen, which is known to stimulate the formation of tumour cells.
There are no figures for the numbers of women taking the drugs but almost 700,000 prescriptions were written out last year.
Dr Ivana Sestak from Queen Mary, the University of London said: ‘We found that the association between nausea, vomiting, headaches, hot flushes and gynaecological symptoms and non-adherence to treatment was largely similar between women taking placebo or Tamoxifen.
‘Therefore, this suggests that women may be attributing normally-occurring, age-related symptoms, such as those experienced around the time of menopause, to their medication instead.’
Naturally-occuring symptoms
DON’T FEAR THE WORST
Breast cancer patients who fear the worst end up suffering more severe side effects from treatment, a German study found last year.
But those who have a positive outlook tend to experience fewer and less severe hot flushes and vomiting bouts.
The intensity and frequency of side effects from taking hormone therapy drugs such as tamoxifen and exemestane for two years was influenced by patients’ expectations, the researchers found.
When patients expected to suffer before treatment began, they ended up feeling worse.
She urged GPs to point out to women that they may experience naturally occurring symptoms whilst taking Tamoxifen which may have nothing to do with the drugs,
‘Communicating accurate information on side effects to patients, and highlighting that some naturally-occurring symptoms may occur during the course of therapy, could be a useful approach in encouraging adherence.
‘This is particularly important for women who are expected to experience the menopause while taking preventive therapy.
‘These discussions may encourage more realistic expectations of the likelihood of experiencing side effects.’
How was the study carried out?
The research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology involved 3,823 women from the UK, Europe and Australia who had been prescribed Tamoxifen or a placebo for five years.
These women had either had undergone treatment for oestrogen positive breast cancer – which accounts for 70 per cent of all cases.
The study showed that 30 per cent had stopped taking the pills by five years including 25 per cent on the placebo and 35 per cent on Tamoxifen.
Dr Samuel Smith, a Cancer Research UK fellow who is based at the University of Leeds said: ‘Intervention strategies that help to communicate effectively the harms and benefits of preventive therapy to patients need to be developed.
‘At present interventions that help to improve adherence to medications are few and far between. So we are considering ways to intervene with these patients to ensure the safe and appropriate use of preventive therapy.’
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