Anti-Estrogen Therapy

Hi Brandi, I did not take this, but I took Arimidex and had such severe side effects that I had to stop. Reactions to these meds vary; some women do fine on one drug and have reactions to others. I told my doctor right away, she had me stop for a while, tried again, but was always immobilized with pain. It can be dangerous to stop a drug without supervision, as some meds can cause a rebound effect, so check with your doctor. You can look up side effects of fareston here, and search for any other med: www.rxlist.com/fareston-drug.htm
Good luck! Hi Brandi, I did not take this, but I took Arimidex and had such severe side effects that I had to stop. Reactions to these meds vary; some women do fine on one drug and have reactions to others. I told my doctor right away, she had me stop for a while, tried again, but was always immobilized with pain. It can be dangerous to stop a drug without supervision, as some meds can cause a rebound effect, so check with your doctor. You can look up side effects of fareston here, and search for any other med: www.rxlist.com/fareston-drug.htm
Good luck!

Neoadjuvant therapy refers to chemotherapy or anti-estrogen therapy administered before surgery - usually in an attempt to decrease the size of the tumor. One situation where neoadjuvant therapy is helpful is if the tumor is too large to remove with lumpectomy and still leave an acceptable cosmetic result - neoadjuvant therapy can shrink the tumor to allow for a more cosmetic lumpectomy. Another situation when neoadjuvant therapy is used is if the tumor is already invading into the skin or muscle - it can be very difficult to perform surgery in these situations, so often chemotherapy will be used prior to surgery.

It is important to realize that in cases where neoadjuvant therapy is given, tumors do not always shrink concentrically - in other words, they sometimes shrink in some areas but leave little pockets of cancer cells behind. For that reason if I have a patient undergoing neoadjuvant therapy, I will often obtain an MRI prior to surgery to make as sure as possible that we are not dealing with a situation where there are multiple pockets of cancer cells remaining. Neoadjuvant therapy refers to chemotherapy or anti-estrogen therapy administered before surgery - usually in an attempt to decrease the size of the tumor. One situation where neoadjuvant therapy is helpful is if the tumor is too large to remove with lumpectomy and still leave an acceptable cosmetic result - neoadjuvant therapy can shrink the tumor to allow for a more cosmetic lumpectomy. Another situation when neoadjuvant therapy is used is if the tumor is already invading into the skin or muscle - it can be very difficult to perform surgery in these situations, so often chemotherapy will be used prior to surgery.

It is important to realize that in cases where neoadjuvant therapy is given, tumors do not always shrink concentrically - in other words, they sometimes shrink in some areas but leave little pockets of cancer cells behind. For that reason if I have a patient undergoing neoadjuvant therapy, I will often obtain an MRI prior to surgery to make as sure as possible that we are not dealing with a situation where there are multiple pockets of cancer cells remaining.