Hot flushes good for cancer drugs

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Hot flushes, night sweats and painful joints may be a sign of success for breast cancer therapy, research shows.

Women taking tamoxifen or anastrozole are 10% less likely to have a recurrence of the disease if they have the side-effects, a study found.

It is hoped the results in The Lancet Oncology may encourage women to continue with therapy despite uncomfortable symptoms.

Researchers analysed data from 4,000 women with early-stage breast cancer.

Tamoxifen and anastrozole are both forms of hormone therapy used for some women with breast cancer.

At the moment all we can say is that the symptoms indicate the likely success of the treatment Professor Jack Cuzick

In 2004 a large international randomised trial compared the drugs in post-menopausal women.

Using data from this study, the researchers found 37.5% of women reported hot flushes and night sweats after three months of treatment and they subsequently had a lower recurrence rate than women without the symptoms.

There was a greater decreased risk of recurrence in the just under a third of women who reported the side-effect of painful joints.

Oestrogen

Study leader, Professor Jack Cuzick, an epidemiologist from Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry and lead author of the study, said the treatments were designed to starve potential cancers of oestrogen and these symptoms mean that there are lower levels of oestrogen in the body.

"Our study found that hot flushes, night sweats and painful joints could be used to predict how effective a breast cancer patient's hormonal treatment will be.

"But it is too early to say whether having these symptoms is essential for the treatment to be effective.

"At the moment all we can say is that the symptoms indicate the likely success of the treatment."

He added that the knowledge that such symptoms indicate a strong treatment effect may encourage women to keep taking the drugs long-term.

Dr Kat Arney from Cancer Research UK said it was important to stress that if a woman is not having symptoms it does not necessarily mean the treatment is not working.

"If she's having side-effects then so much the better."

She said further research is needed on whether the findings on side-effects are associated with the genetics behind individual patient responses to cancer treatment.