In a study published this week by the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors at Pittsburghs Allegheny General Hospital have discovered a link between chemotherapys suppression of a womans normal menstrual cycle and survival of early-stage breast cancer. The discovery has led to questions about estrogens role in treatments for breast cancer.
The new and surprising observation in our study was that chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea was associated with improved survival among premenopausal women with estrogen negative breast cancers as well as those with endocrine responsive breast cancers, said Director of the AGH Cancer Center Dr. Charles Geyer in a statement last week. This would suggest that the ovaries may be playing an important role beyond estrogen production that is influencing the disease process.
An extremely common side effect, amenorrhea occurs in 40-90 percent of premenopausal breast cancer patients depending on their age and the type of chemotherapy regimen. Because amenorrhea causes a decline in estrogen levels, AGH oncologists now wonder if estrogen could be complicating treatments. Current trials are testing the reduction of other ovarian hormone,s but results will not be known for several years.
Still, the resulting chemical cocktail, which is targeted to cause the menstrual side effect, produced a significant 17 percent reduction in mortality in an eight-year test group. While the millions affected by cancer each year know chemo’s down side, we still have a lot to learn about what our bodily reactions to these drugs are trying to tell us.
Source: Dr. Charles Geyer, Allegheny General Hospital
Writer: John Steele