Cinco Vidas

Tamoxifen is a popular drug that’s been used to treat breast cancer for over 30 years. It helps prevent cancer from returning, inhibits new tumors from developing in the other breast, and slows the growth of cancer cells in the body. In some high-risk cases, it’s been prescribed to help prevent breast cancer, because of its ability to block the effects of estrogen in breast tissue. However, it has a lot of side effects that women need to be aware of. One is its ability to slightly raise the risk of uterine cancer. (more…)

The drug Tamoxifen is used around the world to help treat breast cancer. But it’s also causing women a lot of grief!

Like many cancer-treatment drugs, Tamoxifen comes with several possible side effects. The most common ones are menopausal symptoms—specifically, hot flashes. No matter how old or young you are, this drug can have you running for the freezer. Approximately 50–75 percent of women on the drug experience hot flashes. Because it works by blocking the effects of estrogen, it can trick the body into believing it’s hit menopause, though most of the time it doesn’t bring on permanent menopause in younger women. (more…)

Taking antidepressants? It’s usually not a problem, unless you’re also taking the breast cancer drug, tamoxifen. Recent studies show the two together could increase the chances of breast cancer returning after treatment is over.

In the study, women taking one of these three medications along with tamoxifen were about twice as likely to experience breast cancer a second time. (Celexa, Lexapro, and Luvox did not show the same results.)

It’s a bit of a shock, as antidepressants are often prescribed to ease depression caused by cancer, or to reduce the sometimes severe hot flashes caused by tamoxifen. In fact, over 25% of women experiencing hot flashes on tamoxifen are now prescribed antidepressants to manage the symptoms! (more…)