Tamixofen Users - Don't Take Antidepressants, Too!!!!

Many women take Tamixofen, which cuts in half the chances of their estrogen-positive breast cancer from coming back. Because hormone pills are a no-no for such situations, antidepressants have been prescribed in the past to help fight hot flashes.

As everyone should know, drugs can interact and interfere with each other. Some drugs can diminish or completely cancel out the effectiveness of other drugs.

Recent cancer studies on about 1200 women over a year by Medco Health have found that some (not all) anti-depressants (Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and others) decrease the effectiveness of Tamixofen. They found that about 7% of women not on anti-depressants have a cancer recurrance but this percentage doubles for women who are on anti-depressants.

Medco's chief medical officer, Dr. Robert Epstein recommends staying away from Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft for now. Dr. Claudine Isaacs, a breast specialist at Georgetown University's Lombardi Cancer Center, agrees and recommends erring on the side of caution and avoiding those three particular anti-depressants .

Back in 2006, an advisory panel recommended putting a warning label on Tamixofen but the FDA has yet to implement action.

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Please see the other articles listed in the margin. You might also be interested in reading about: Hormone Receptor Postive Breast Cancer.

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Hormone Receptor Positive Cancer

Your doctor will request a biopsy test to see if the cancer is sensitive to estrogen and progesterone. If the test is positive, the cancer likes to grow in a high-estrogen environment. Think of ER-positive cancers as ones that like to "eat" hormones. One way to fight these kinds of cancers is to take away their "food." In women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancers, hormonal therapy is part of the treatment.

Women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer are usually prescribed Tamoxifen or Raloxifene, pills that reduce the risk of cancer in high-risk patients, prevent cancer from returning as well as to fight a current cancer. Please read about the STAR study that compares these two medications' ability to fight cancer.

Besides the ovaries, estrogen comes from fat cells so overweight patients should lose some pounds in their effort to lower estrogen levels and fight the cancer. Statistically, overweight patients have a higher mortality rate.

In pre-menopausal women, the primary source of estrogen production is the ovaries and they are sometimes surgically removed or shut down with medication.

In post-menopausal women, a class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors (AI's) may be used instead of Tamoxifen. These inhibitors prevent androgen from turning into estrogen in the blood. Right now there are three that are FDA approved for fighting breast cancer: anastrazole (Arimidex), exemestane (Aromasin), and letrozole (Femara).

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