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Query: UMLS:C0006826 (cancer)
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Compliance with estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) following surgical menopause is poor. In women who have a family history of ovarian cancer, fear of the oncogenic potential of estrogen might affect compliance with ERT following oophorectomy. Compliance with ERT in such a select group of women has not been previously reported. The aim of the present study was to report on compliance with and side effects of ERT in women with a family history of ovarian cancer who underwent oophorectomy either prophylactically or for benign disease. Eighty women with a family history of ovarian cancer who underwent oophorectomy at Roswell Park Cancer Institute were followed for a median duration of 4.2 years (range, 5 months to 14 years). Of the 76 women who were given prescriptions for ERT, the rates of commencement and maintenance of ERT at 1, 2, and 5 years were calculated. Side effects related to the different modalities of ERT were recorded. Seventy-one of 76 women (93.4%) who were given prescriptions for ERT initiated treatment. The rate of commencement of ERT was higher in premenopausal than in postmenopausal women (98.3% versus 75%, respectively, P = 0.003). Except for one patient who developed breast cancer after the oophorectomy and was advised to stop estrogen, all patients said they continued to use ERT. The maintenance rates at 1, 2, and 5 years were 100% as per patients' history. The pharmacy records for ERT prescription refills were reviewed for 52 patients who were on ERT for more than 1 year. ERT compliance was confirmed in 42 patients (80.7%). Seven of 30 patients (23.3%) who retained their uterus developed irregular uterine bleeding and 4 underwent endometrial biopsies. The incidence of irregular uterine bleeding was significantly higher after continuous compared to cyclic estrogen and progestogen (37.6 and 7% respectively, P = 0.049). Four patients (5.6%) complained of hot flashes and were managed by changing the dose or formula of estrogen. Compliance with ERT among patients with a family history of ovarian cancer who underwent oophorectomy either prophylactically or for benign disease was excellent. The presence of the uterus and the incidence of irregular uterine bleeding did not affect patients' compliance with ERT.
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PMID:Estrogen replacement therapy following oophorectomy in women with a family history of ovarian cancer. 923 29

Toremifene is a chlorinated tamoxifen analogue that is indicated for the treatment of postmenopausal hormone-dependent breast cancer. It competes with estradiol for estrogen receptors and has growth-inhibitory effects on MCF-7 breast cancer cells. At concentrations < 10(-6) mol/L, this growth inhibition can be reversed by estradiol, but at higher concentrations toremifene is cytotoxic. In dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA)-induced mammary cancer in rats, toremifene has been shown to decrease the number of new tumours and to inhibit the growth of existing tumours. Toremifene causes growth inhibition by suppressing mitosis and inducing apoptosis. The mechanism by which these events occur may involve the induction of transforming growth factor-beta 1 and inhibition of insulin-like growth factor-1 (mecasermin). Toremifene is primarily an antiestrogen, but it has some estrogen agonist properties in postmenopausal women. The latter are reflected by the fall in luteinising hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone levels and the rise in sex hormone-binding globulin levels that are associated with its use in most women. After estrogen priming, toremifene 68mg administered orally has been found to exert a similar antiestrogenic effect on the vaginal epithelium in postmenopausal women as tamoxifen 60mg. The half-life of toremifene in plasma is 5 days, and the drug is > 99% bound to plasma proteins. The main metabolites of toremifene are N-demethyl-toremifene and deaminohydroxy-toremifene. Altered liver, but not kidney, function affects the pharmacokinetics of toremifene. Toremifene 60mg daily is as effective as tamoxifen 20mg daily in the treatment of postmenopausal hormone-dependent breast cancer, producing a response in about 50% of patients. Soft tissue and visceral metastases respond better to toremifene than bone metastases. Most of the adverse effects of toremifene are related to its activity at estrogen receptors and include hot flashes, vaginal discharge and nausea. Although toremifene decreases antithrombin III levels slightly, the incidence of thromboembolic complications is low. Thus far, no carcinogenic effects have been noted in humans, and preclinical data are mostly reassuring. Toremifene has favourable effects on serum lipids, and thus has potential in preventing coronary heart disease. Although toremifene is somewhat more expensive to use than tamoxifen, toremifene is an effective and well tolerated alternative to tamoxifen in the treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone-dependent breast cancer. No formal pharmacoeconomic comparisons of toremifene and tamoxifen have yet been published. Toremifene is potentially safer than tamoxifen in relation to carcinogenic effects and effects on serum lipids.
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PMID:Toremifene in postmenopausal breast cancer. Efficacy, safety and cost. 934 56

To obtain information to guide future health care planning, data from government and other sources on the demographic and medical characteristics of menopausal Taiwanese women were reviewed. The average age at menopause, according to a 1995-96 study of 386 menopausal women in Taipei, is 49.5 +or- 2.3 years. In 1994, women aged 50 years and over comprised 18.3% of Taiwan's female population and 8.9% of the total population. 68% of menopausal women in the 1995-96 study reported lower back pain; other common symptoms included fatigue (59%), decreased memory (55%), vaginal dryness (50%), hot flashes (49%), insomnia (46%), loss of libido (46%), dry skin (41%), and depression (40%). After menopause, the prevalence of hypertension and coronary heart disease becomes higher among women than men. In addition, bone mineral density decreases markedly and 19.8% of women 65 years of age and over have experienced vertebral fractures. About 60% of malignant neoplasms diagnosed in 1992 involved women aged 50 years and older. By age 60 years, women's risk of cancer begins to increase substantially. An estimated 80% of Taiwanese women initiate hormone replacement therapy for relief of menopausal symptoms, prevention of cardiovascular disease, and prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. Since 30% of menopausal women in Taiwan are currently widowed or unmarried, there is a need to design programs that offer psychosocial support as well as comprehensive medical care.
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PMID:Demographic characteristics and medical aspects of menopausal women in Taiwan. 934 80

Men who pursue active treatment for metastatic prostate cancer face a choice between medical or surgical castration. While both alternatives have documented side-effects (e.g. loss of libido, breast enlargement and tenderness, hot flashes, and nausea), their psychosocial impacts are not well understood. As part of a study of patients' treatment decision making, we have sought to construct a patient-based measure of the salient disease and treatment-related qualities of life experienced by these men subsequent to treatment. Focus groups (15 with patients, two with wives) were used to develop candidate Likert scale questionnaire items representing quality of life issues that patients said were important. These items were combined with assessments of symptoms, comorbidity, and generic measures of functional status and well-being in a mail survey of patients treated at the Houston VAMC and two other Houston hospitals (n = 201, response rate = 63%). Psychometric analyses (principal components and multitrait scaling) were used to identify distinct dimensions of life quality; correlations with generic measures, and symptom reports were used in validation analyses. Qualitative analyses of focus group data identified three major domains of life quality: self-perceptions, anxiety about the effects of treatment, and concern with the process of decision making and treatment. Psychometric analyses identified nine reliable and valid indicators of prostate cancer-related quality of life: body image, sexual problems, spouse affection, spouse worry, masculinity, cancer-related self-image, cancer distress, cancer acceptance, and regret of treatment decision. Internal consistency (alpha) ranged form 0.71 to 0.90. Correlations with reference scales (e.g. MOS Mental Health Index, Profile of Mood States) and symptom status supported concurrent validity. Prostate cancer patients perceive a number of important psychosocial consequences of their treatment. These consequences are represented by nine scales comprising a brief (35 items) disease and treatment sensitive health-related quality of life instrument, which we will use in monitoring the outcomes of patients' treatment choices.
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PMID:Dimensions of quality of life expressed by men treated for metastatic prostate cancer. 938 Dec 42

Because side-effects of chemotherapy may be more diverse and patients' reactions more individualistic than tends to be acknowledged by clinicians, a survey was carried out among 50 breast cancer outpatients to document self-reported physical symptoms experienced during NCF (mitoxantrone + cyclophosphamide + 5-fluorouracil) adjuvant chemotherapy and to compare them with the clinicians' estimation in medical records. The questionnaire evaluated the prevalence, duration/severity and distress level of 17 symptoms. Symptom prevalence, assessed in 231 cycles, was high even for symptoms that do not usually focus clinicians' attention. Of these, hot flushes, stomach pain and muscular and articular pains lasted 1 week or more for nearly half of the cycles. Hot flushes, vomiting and stomach pain were the most distressing symptoms. The mean number of symptoms per cycle is significantly correlated with the global quality-of-life score. Concordance between patients' self-assessment and clinical reports, measured in 180 cycles, is moderately correct for vomiting and sore mouth and inadequate for the remaining symptoms even for hair loss (notified in 27% of cycles by clinicians vs 80% by patients) and nausea (38% vs 73%). A better understanding by physicians of cancer patients' problems is necessary to improve quality of care.
Br J Cancer 1997
PMID:Discordance between physicians' estimations and breast cancer patients' self-assessment of side-effects of chemotherapy: an issue for quality of care. 941 55

This Phase II study was designed to determine the efficacy and tolerability of vorozole (R83842), a new nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor, in postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer in progression being treated with tamoxifen, and to correlate these effects with the hormonal profile and plasma drug levels. Twenty-nine eligible women with estrogen receptor-positive or unknown disease were treated with 2.5 mg vorozole once daily p.o. until disease progression. All 29 are evaluable for toxicity and 27 for response as assessed by International Union Against Cancer (UICC) criteria. After a median follow-up of 8 months, 3 patients (11%) had partial remission of their disease for 14, 15, and 16 months and 14 patients had disease stabilization for 7-24 months (median, 12). Patients with a normal carcinoembryonic antigen level (</=3 mm/liter), those without bone metastases, older women, and those with a long disease-free interval were most likely to benefit from treatment. Estradiol decreased from pretreatment levels of 9. 2-85 pm/liter (mean, 24) to below detection (9.2 pm/liter) and estrone from 64-311 pm/liter (mean, 144.3) to 19-116 pm/liter (mean, 57) after 1 month. Serum follicle-stimulating and luteinizing hormone levels rose from 9-74 IU/liter (mean, 35.3) and 3.3-38 IU/liter (mean, 17.8) to 10-102 IU/liter (mean, 44.6) and 1.6-70 IU/liter (mean, 24.2) and sex hormone-binding globulin fell from 27-138 nm/liter (mean, 65.4) to 15-109 nm/liter (mean, 53.8) after 1 month of treatment. Corresponding levels of androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone, free testosterone, and 17alpha-hydroxyprogesterone were unaffected. An adrenocorticotropic hormone stimulation test was normal in 18 patients 1 month after treatment commenced. Trough drug levels (measured by gas chromatography) ranged from 6.5-95 ng/ml (median, 24.5) at 1 month of treatment. Possible treatment-related side effects were mild and included malaise, anorexia and nausea, hot flashes, fluid retention, vaginal infection, alopecia, lightheadedness, and one allergic reaction which caused lip swelling. Vorozole, given orally, is a clinically active well-tolerated new treatment for breast cancer. Selective suppression of estrogen confirms its action as a specific aromatase inhibitor. Further trials to confirm its relative efficacy in postmenopausal disease and to explore its application in other settings are indicated.
Clin Cancer Res 1995 Mar
PMID:Phase II study of vorozole (R83842), a new aromatase inhibitor, in postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer in progression on tamoxifen. 981 84

Menopause is an expected event in a woman's life. Treatment for breast cancer can impact the onset of menopause and precipitate symptoms such as hot flashes. Yet this sequelae of events is not well measured, defined or assimilated into quality of life assessments for cancer survivors. Though not life threatening, hot flashes can greatly impact a woman's quality of life or functional ability. It is important for health care professionals to more fully understand the nature of the experience of hot flashes so as not to underestimate their disruptive potential. As part of a larger clinical trial to look at the effectiveness of vitamin E for hot flashes, breast cancer survivors kept a log of both the frequency and intensity of their hot flashes. These women then wrote descriptions to define the severity of those hot flashes. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the experience of hot flashes in breast cancer survivors and to describe the severity of hot flashes with narratives given by the women experiencing them.
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PMID:Definitions of hot flashes in breast cancer survivors. 984 28

ERT/HRT is clearly of use in relieving menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and genitourinary changes. ERT/HRT also clearly reduces the risks of osteoporotic fracture, of cardiovascular events and deaths, and of developing colon cancer. ERT and, perhaps even more, HRT are, however, associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer. This effect becomes more marked with long-term use (> or = 10 years); ERT/HRT use for more than 10 years is also associated with an increase in deaths from breast cancer. Because the underlying mortality risk for the average woman is, however, much greater from cardiovascular disease (approximately 22%) than from breast cancer (approximately 3.3%), the reduction in risk of cardiovascular death associated with ERT/HRT (from 22% to 15%) much outweighs the increase in risk of death from breast cancer (from 3.3% to 4.1%). Thus, overall, the average woman will gain more year(s) of life than she will lose by taking ERT/HRT. Even for a woman with a high risk of breast cancer and a low risk of cardiovascular disease, there will still be a net, although lower, gain in year(s) of life. Thus, the use of ERT/HRT would seem well worth considering for a well woman at the time of menopause.
Recent Results Cancer Res 1998
PMID:Estrogen/hormone replacement therapy and the etiology of breast cancer. 992 44

Little is known about the long-term effects of adjuvant therapy on quality of life, sexual functioning and symptoms in breast cancer survivors. Between January 1996 and June 1997, we surveyed 1098 women who had been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer between 1 and 5 years earlier. The breast cancer survivors were recruited in two large metropolitan centers in the USA. They completed a survey battery that contained standardized measures of health-related quality of life (HRQL), depression, body image, sexual functioning, and symptoms. A total of 1096 had usable responses for these analyses. In this sample, n = 356 had received tamoxifen (TAM) alone, n = 180 received chemotherapy (CHEM) alone, n = 395 received CHEM + TAM, and n = 265 received no adjuvant therapy (NO RX). There were significant differences in the mean age of each group, with the TAM group being the oldest (mean 62.6 years) and the CHEM group being the youngest (mean 46.8 years). Both age and time since diagnosis were controlled for in all statistical analyses. We found no significant differences in global quality of life among the four treatment groups. For the MOS-SF-36, there were no significant differences on the subscale scores except for the physical functioning subscale (p = 0.0002); the NO RX group had the highest functioning. There were no significant differences in depression scores among the four treatment groups. The MOS-SF-36 physical functioning composite score differed by treatment group (p = 0.012); the NO RX group had a physical functioning composite score that was at the mean for a normal healthy population of women, while those in the adjuvant treatment groups scored slightly lower. The mental health composite score was not significantly different among the four treatment groups and approximated scores from the normal population of healthy women. There were no differences in body image scores among the four treatment groups; however, sexual functioning scores did differ (p = 0.0078) with patients receiving chemotherapy (either alone or with tamoxifen) experiencing more problems. Hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal discharge differed by treatment (p = 0.0001); all symptoms were reported more often in breast cancer survivors on tamoxifen. Vaginal dryness and pain with intercourse also differed significantly by adjuvant treatment, occurring more often in survivors treated with chemotherapy. Overall, breast cancer survivors function at a high level, similar to healthy women without cancer. However, compared to survivors with no adjuvant therapy, those who received chemotherapy have significantly more sexual problems, and those treated with tamoxifen experience more vasomotor symptoms.
Recent Results Cancer Res 1998
PMID:Impact of different adjuvant therapy strategies on quality of life in breast cancer survivors. 992 75

Hot flashes are among the most commonly reported symptoms among women who have completed treatment for breast cancer. Relatively little is known, however, about hot flashes among women while they are undergoing breast cancer treatment. The present study investigated the prevalence and severity of hot flashes of women during chemotherapy and radiotherapy for breast cancer. We also sought to identify the medical, demographic, and treatment correlates of hot flashes during treatment and to document the impact of hot flashes on quality of life. Seventy postmenopausal women with breast cancer completed a self-report questionnaire packet during chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Forty percent (n = 28) reported hot flashes during the week prior to assessment. Of the 28 women endorsing hot flashes, 25% (n = 7) rated them as severe, 39% (n = 11) rated them as moderate, and 36% (n = 10) rated them as mild. Women with hot flashes were significantly (p < 0.05) younger and reported significantly (p < 0.001) more fatigue, poorer sleep quality, and poorer physical health compared to women without hot flashes. Multivariate analyses revealed that, even after controlling for relevant medical, demographic, and treatment variables, the prevalence of hot flashes significantly (p < 0.05) predicted poorer sleep quality, more fatigue, and worse physical health. The results indicate that hot flashes are experienced by a sizable percentage of postmenopausal breast cancer patients as they undergo treatment. Hot flashes during cancer treatment appear to have a negative impact upon patient quality of life that may be due, in part, to fatigue and interference with sleep. Future research should seek to evaluate interventions to relieve hot flashes during breast cancer treatment as a means of improving patient quality of life.
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PMID:Impact of hot flashes on quality of life among postmenopausal women being treated for breast cancer. 1090 24


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