Most women hate them. But women with breast cancer may think they’re the best thing that could happen.
We’re talking about hot flashes — those annoying waves of heat commonly associated with menopause. A new study finds women who have hot flashes while being treated with a standard breast cancer drug actually have a lower risk of breast cancer recurrence than women who don’t.
In fact, hot flashes predicted a better outcome more accurately than typical factors, such as severity of the cancer at diagnosis, hormone receptor status, or age.
The findings come from data collected in a large clinical trial on diet and health in women. Among 864 women with breast cancer who were receiving tamoxifen, 78 percent reported experiencing hot flashes. About 13 percent of the women having the hot flashes ended up with a recurrence of their breast cancer, compared to 21 percent of those not having hot flashes.
“This study provides the first evidence that hot flashes may be an indicator of a better prognosis in women with early stage breast cancer,” study author John P. Pierce, Ph.D., from the University of California at San Diego, was quoted as saying. “Our data support the possibility of a significant association between hot flashes and disease outcome.”
Further study is now in the works to find out how hot flashes and breast cancer progression are linked in women taking tamoxifen.
SOURCE: Presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting in Chicago, June 1-5, 2007