Living with Breast Cancer Tre... Video Transcript

Webcast Transcript

When a tumor grows in response to hormones such as estrogen, hormonal therapies can reduce the levels, or block the effects, of these hormones, thus starving the tumor. The choice of hormonal therapy depends on how advanced the disease is and whether the woman is pre-menopausal or post-menopausal and on how advanced the disease is.

For the post-menopausal woman with an early stage breast cancer, a 5-year course of tamoxifen is the standard treatment. Another option is Arimidex, which studies suggest may be equally or more effective with fewer side effects.

For patients with locally advanced and advanced breast cancers, other drugs have been approved for hormonal therapy.

Fortunately, compared to chemotherapy, women on hormonal treatment will experience relatively few side effects, the most common being hot flashes, which can be treated with medication.

ANNOUNCER: Each woman will react differently to breast cancer treatment but survivors point out: it helps to know what's ahead and understand there are ways to cope.

CAROLE CHAMBERLAIN: They have to ask these doctors everything. Am I going to be sick to my stomach? How long is going to last? How many treatments am I going to have? What's the outcome afterwards? And of course, they can't always answer that question. But you have to ask your questions? You have to put your fright away.

DAWN COLUCCI: What I did was I made the best of everything on a day-to-day basis. If I wasn't feeling well, I would just take it easy or I would surround myself with loved ones, with family, with friends.

The treatments, although they are very harsh, they do work, and I'm an example of that. And I'm very pleased with what I've had done. And let me say, that should it happen again, I wouldn't do anything different.

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