HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - Anybody taken tamoxifen after 10years of arimidex?

Lien · 07-28-2016, 10:22 AM

Why would you want to keep taking anything after 10 years? Did you have advanced stage disease? Other risk factors? I had 5 years of Arimidex and decided to quit, as the risk reduction after that was supposed to be quite small. I am 12.5 years out from diagnosis now and I was 44 when I was diagnosed.

Taking drugs always brings side effects. In the case of AI's, bone health is an issue. It is not at all certain that bisphosphonates reduce the risk of fractures, even if they do seem to increase bone density. My Dad had been on bisphosphonates for a year while taking prednisone, and his osteoporosis is significant still. He also fractured his foot by just walking. So I would be concerned about that.

We don't have a clue what these hormone treatments do to us in the long run, so I decided to quit. It might protect me from my relatively small chance of having a breast cancer recurrence, but increase my risk of cardiovascular disease, for instance.

So I decided to do everything and anything I could do to keep my breast cancer risk as low as possible, quit drinking alcohol, started exercising more and more regularly and started watching my diet. I have not had a recurrance so far.

There are no guarantees in this breast cancer crapshoot. We have no christen ball and we don't know what all these meds will do in the long run. So we collect all the info we can find and then make an educated guess.

Just my two cents.

Love

Jacqueline

07-28-2016, 10:22 AM	#5
Lien Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Haarlem, the Netherlands Posts: 835	Re: Anybody taken tamoxifen after 10years of arimidex? Why would you want to keep taking anything after 10 years? Did you have advanced stage disease? Other risk factors? I had 5 years of Arimidex and decided to quit, as the risk reduction after that was supposed to be quite small. I am 12.5 years out from diagnosis now and I was 44 when I was diagnosed. Taking drugs always brings side effects. In the case of AI's, bone health is an issue. It is not at all certain that bisphosphonates reduce the risk of fractures, even if they do seem to increase bone density. My Dad had been on bisphosphonates for a year while taking prednisone, and his osteoporosis is significant still. He also fractured his foot by just walking. So I would be concerned about that. We don't have a clue what these hormone treatments do to us in the long run, so I decided to quit. It might protect me from my relatively small chance of having a breast cancer recurrence, but increase my risk of cardiovascular disease, for instance. So I decided to do everything and anything I could do to keep my breast cancer risk as low as possible, quit drinking alcohol, started exercising more and more regularly and started watching my diet. I have not had a recurrance so far. There are no guarantees in this breast cancer crapshoot. We have no christen ball and we don't know what all these meds will do in the long run. So we collect all the info we can find and then make an educated guess. Just my two cents. Love Jacqueline __________________ Diagnosed age 44, January 2004, 0.7 cm IDC & DCIS. Stage 1, grade 3, ER/PR pos. HER2 pos. clear margins, no nodes. SNB. 35 rads. On Zoladex and Armidex since Dec. 2004. Stopped Zoladex/Arimidex sept 2009 Still taking mistletoe shots (CAM therapy) Doing fine.