| Hot flushes or hot flashes in breast cancer patients | | | | completion of treatment with a seventy five percent |
| are a common problem. | | | | or greater reduction in hot flushes from that womens |
| Many breast cancers are sensitive to circulating | | | | starting point. |
| estrogen levels and for many women, suppressing | | | | If the treatment they were on worked well the |
| the production or the effects of estrogen on the | | | | women were given another three months of the |
| body is a major strategy in their treatment. A lack of | | | | same medication and dose. If they did not get |
| estrogen will produce symptoms identical to the | | | | benefit after three months then they were given |
| menopause and the most unpleasant of these are | | | | 20mg a day of Megace on top of what they were |
| hot flushes, sweats or hot flashes. | | | | already taking. |
| A new research project has looked at the effect of | | | | Reduction of flushings of seventy fiver percent or |
| a drug called Megace or megesterol acetate in | | | | more was reported ino only 14% of those women |
| treating hot flushes in women with breast cancer. | | | | who were on placebo medicationo 65% of those |
| They studied nearly three hundred patients with | | | | women who were on the 20 mg doseo 48% of the |
| breast cancer who had completed surgery and | | | | women who were on the 40 mg dose of drug |
| chemotherapy and at least four months of tamoxifen | | | | In addition, most successes at three months were |
| treatment for their condition. | | | | maintained at six months in seventy seven percent |
| Before they took part in the study the women had | | | | of the women on 20 mg and in eighty one percent |
| to have experienced at least ten hot flashes of any | | | | of the women on 40 mg per day - but there was no |
| severity or at least five severe episodes each | | | | significant impact on other menopausal symptoms like |
| week.When the research data was looked at, eighty | | | | vaginal dryness or joint pains. |
| five percent of the women who took part were on | | | | For the women taking Megace the main side effects |
| tamoxifen, and forty percent had more than sixty | | | | were fluid retention and weight gain, fatigue and |
| hot flushes per week. Three quarters of them had | | | | sometimes mild depression. |
| experienced sweats and flashes for more than six | | | | The researchers concluded that Megace was very |
| months before they started in the study. | | | | successful in alleviating sweats and flushes in breast |
| The women were divided into three groups. One | | | | cancer survivors with lasting results at 6 months. |
| group were given a placebo tablet, one group got | | | | They recommended the twenty milligram dose for |
| 20mg of Megace and the other received 40mg of | | | | most women and said that this treatment should be |
| Megace each day. They all took their medicine for | | | | considered for all women with menopause flushing |
| three months. A good outcome was defined as | | | | symptoms after breast cancer treatment. |