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Old 03-18-2008, 08:56 AM   #6
Hopeful
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,380
Terri,

None that I am aware of, though, truthfully, I don't think there is any. I think the Phase I trials of the drugs were done to test toxicity (i.e., what is the maximum dose you can take without it killing you) vs. what is the minimum amount you need to take for it to be effective. In private correspondence with a friend who works in the medical field, I was advised that the doses of the meds are likely set at levels that enable the fastest metabolizers to maintain the steady-state level of the drug in the blood that is the recommended dosage. What this means is that normal or slow metabolizers are having more of the drug floating around in their body than is probably required to do the job. I brought this up with my onc, and he said 1) he wished I had asked him the question a month earlier, as the "inventor of Femara" was a guest speaker at his practice's lunchtime CME and he could have gotten a good answer for me, and 2) it is his belief that circulating hormone levels do not remain level, even on these drugs, and go up and down somewhat. The latter is something I had never heard, and I am not sure why he thinks this; however, it was part of his rationale for not halving the dose. Perhaps the "Femara expert" discussed it in the CME.

Hopeful
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