Breast cancer awareness is everywhere but what about awareness for breast cancer chemoprevention? This is a method to decrease the risk of breast cancer in those with a high risk of getting breast cancer. In this video I discuss the risks, benefits, and side effects of medications that reduce breast cancer risk: tamoxifen, raloxifen, anastrozole, and exemestane.
It is breast cancer awareness month so let’s talk about the medications that can prevent it tamoxifen raloxophene and aromatase inhibitors such as anastrozole and eczema sting are all medications that are used to prevent breast cancer this is known as chemo prevention basically taking medications or drugs in order to prevent a disease from ever happening chemo
Prevention isn’t an option that everyone needs we typically reserve this for patients who are at high risk of getting breast cancer this is really the only way we have enough benefits to outweigh the risk of side effects and drug interactions that do come with taking these medications why because in order for chemo prevention to actually decrease your risk of
Breast cancer you have to take it for at least five years and that’s a big commitment and even then it only decreases your risk by about 40 percent of whatever your current risk is so for example if your risk is 10 percent it’ll decrease it down to six percent after that five year mark patients who may benefit from chemo prophylaxis because of their high risk are
Patients who are older in age those who have a close relative who had breast cancer patients who have a gene mutations like braca and your menstruation pregnancy history can also play a role in your risk if you’re curious what your risk is you can use the link down below to go to the american cancer society to take their breast cancer risk screening just know in
Order for it to be accurate you have to be over 35 years of age so let’s talk about the two agents that are actually approved for breast cancer prevention tamoxifen and relaxified both of these agents are known as selective estrogen receptor modulators or serms basically what this means is these drugs actually select or target specific receptors in the estrogen
Cells and certain areas of body such as your breast because certain types of breast cancer actually feed off of estrogen and you’re just fueling the cells the more estrogen is there these agents help to prevent that tamoxifen is actually used as one of the treatments for breast cancer that have receptors for estrogen and can also be used to prevent osteoporosis
Tamoxifen can also be used in patients who are premenopausal reluctant is actually used to help treat osteoporosis but it’s not recommended to be taken in patients who are premenopausal the biggest side effect risk for both of these agents includes menopausal symptoms such as night sweats and those good old hot flashes as well as blood clots tamoxifen has also
Been linked to a slight increase in endometrial and uterine cancers but again it’s very slight there are certain patients who should not take these agents this includes patients who are less than 35 years of age those who are taking any kind of estrogen this includes people taking from menopausal symptoms or for birth control purposes and not just the pill but
Also the shot additionally any patients who are breastfeeding pregnant or want to become pregnant should not be taking these agents since it does affect your estrogen levels now for our aromatase inhibitors these aren’t technically approved by the fda for breast cancer prevention however in some patients it may be better for them to take an aromatase inhibitor
Versus one of the other two agents these agents actually stop the production of estrogen and fat tissue and they’re used to treat certain types of breast cancer that respond to hormones however they’re not for everyone and can only be used in patients who have already went through menopause it’s also important to note that it can cause osteoporosis so patients
Who already have it or at our high risk should probably stay away from an aromatase inhibitor just like the serms they can also cause menopausal symptoms as well as muscle and joint pain and can raise your cholesterol so if you have any sort of heart conditions this is a good one to talk to your doctor about because they may want to choose a different agent all
Of these medications are effective at reducing your risk of breast cancer if you’re at high risk so if you’ve got a high score on that risk assessment make sure you make a point with your doctor to discuss your options go ahead and hit that like button if you learned something in this video and make sure you hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any future
Videos and i’ll see you guys next time bye you
Transcribed from video
Breast Cancer Chemoprevention: Tamoxifen, Raloxifen, Anastrozole and Exemestane By Happy Pharm Life