Sunday, June 05, 2011
Taking an aromatase inhibitor can cut your risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer by 65%, says a study released last week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine.The news made headlines in Sunda...
PJ, thanks for this voice of common sense. If a woman has multiple risk factors for breast cancer, taking an AI might be a good idea. But healthy women need to think twice before taking a medicine with so many potentially negative side effects.
For those women with risk factors whose doctors want them to take an AI, one compromise is to give it a try. Not everyone has negative side effects, and if a woman does develop them, she can stop the medicine.
Of course, once a woman is a cancer survivor, the decision is more complicated. But taking such a heavy-duty medicine for prevention needs to be considered very carefully.