Breast Cancer Prevention: Aromatase Inhibitors American Cancer Society

These agents have little or no effect on adrenal glucocorticoid or mineralocorticoid synthesis. Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) don’t stop the ovaries from making estrogen. They only lower estrogen levels in women whose ovaries aren’t making estrogen such as women who have already gone through menopause (post-menopausal women).

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• In doing so, the drugs lower the amount of estrogen in the body by as much as 95%.
• Estrogen promotes the development and maintenance of female sex characteristics and the growth of long bones.
• Find a list of questions on hormone therapy you may want to ask your health care provider.
• Patients initially randomised to chemotherapy were subsequently offered erdafitinib as crossover therapy.
• Aromatase inhibitors block the enzyme aromatase, which turns other hormones into estrogen.

But high estrogen levels may increase your risk of developing ER-positive breast cancer. Aromatase inhibitors block the enzyme aromatase, which turns other hormones into estrogen. By reducing your estrogen levels, aromatase inhibitors keep cancerous cells from growing and spreading. An aromatase inhibitor (AI) is a type of hormone therapy for cancer.

In addition, clinical research is pointing to a day where aromatase inhibitors may be used to prevent breast cancer in postmenopausal women who are at an increased risk of the disease. For example, some women may take an aromatase inhibitor, instead of tamoxifen, every day for 5 years. Other women may receive additional treatment with an aromatase inhibitor after 5 years of tamoxifen. Finally, some women may switch to an aromatase inhibitor after 2 or 3 years of tamoxifen, for a total of 5 or more years of hormone therapy.

What is hormone therapy?

An enzyme called aromatase takes other hormones and converts them into estrogen. Aromatase inhibitors don’t stop the ovaries from making estrogen. If your ovaries are still functioning, aromatase inhibitors will have no effect. We talked with Layman to learn more about these hormone therapy drugs, which are available only to women who’ve completed menopause. Of these, persistent joint and muscle pain are the commonly cited reasons for treatment termination. Hot flashes are the most frequent side effect, impacting as many as 59% of women on aromatase inhibitors, according to a 2014 study in Cancer.

After the primary treatment, many doctors then prescribe hormone therapy. These medications either stop estrogen from reaching the cancer cells, or they reduce the amount of estrogen that a woman’s body makes. Among postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, aromatase inhibitors (alone or after tamoxifen) offer the same or slightly greater benefit compared to tamoxifen alone [90, ]. Healthcare providers use aromatase inhibitors to treat hormone receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancer. ER-positive breast cancer often affects women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB) who https://danzaconchagarcia.es/the-effects-of-nandrox-d-200-mg/ are age 50 and older.

Exemestane (Aromasin) is also used to treat estrogen sensitive breast cancer in women who have experienced menopause whose breast cancer has worsened while they were taking tamoxifen. Studies have shown that aromatase inhibitors are effective when used as adjuvant (add-on) therapy to chemotherapy and surgery in metastatic estrogen-dependent breast cancer. Aromatase inhibitors use in preventative and adjuvant therapies for other conditions is currently under investigation 27, 28. Letrozole (Femara) is in a class of medications called aromatase inhibitors.

Common side effects of Letrozole include hot flashes, night sweats, fatigue, dizziness, headache, somnolence, abdominal discomfort, nausea, arthralgias, weight gain and rash 25. Uncommon, but potentially severe side effects of Letrozole include decrease in bone mineral density, increases in serum cholesterol levels and embryo-fetal toxicity 25. Letrozole is available in 2.5 mg tablets in generic forms and under the brand name Femara. The recommended dose is one tablet daily by mouth once a day with or without food. Follow the directions on your prescription label carefully, and ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain any part you do not understand. Do not take more or less of it or take it more often than prescribed by your doctor.