Monday, May 5, 2014

DRUG NEWS - Bypass Tamoxifen in our lifetime?

Mayo Clinic mentions low back pain as a possible side effect of Tamoxifen.  How is a woman with lumbar fusion supposed to know what is Tamoxifen and what isn't?  We can't just quit Tamoxifen for a month and see what happens.  I am almost fanatical about my posture this week.  And I still wonder if the spine is going bad next to the fusion.   Someone gave me a list of anxiety symptoms - back pain was the second one on the list.

While looking for more on this, I stumbled on a Mayo Clinic online magazine I didn't know existed. In a section called My Very Own Prescription, they report that a genetic difference in women affects how Tamoxifen can work.

Of course that reminded me of the Breast Cancer Hot Topics on medpage that I've mentioned here.

Mayo Clinic says researchers have been looking at women "who were unable to metabolize the drug to its most active form, endoxifen. Now these researchers are proposing to bypass the role for human metabolism by developing endoxifen as a drug."

NCI will work with Mayo Clinic on a trial that will be conducted there.

If you want to read that article, just Google Mayo Clinic Forefront and scroll down.

A far-off chance is better than none.




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