Army of Women: ER Positive Study

[Paula O]

https://www.armyofwomen.org/

We need women from anywhere in the United States who have been diagnosed with any stage of ER+ breast cancer and are prescribed and/or taking hormonal therapy to participate in a study that investigates how breast cancer patients feel about their cancer treatments.

Women with ER+ tumors are typically prescribed hormone therapy: tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor, such as Femara (letrozole), Arimidex (anastrazole), or Aromasin (exemestane). Studies have found that only about half of the women prescribed a hormone therapy stay on their treatment for five years. A research team from Georgetown University wants to learn more about why some women continue to take their medication and others do not. This information will help them improve the likelihood that women will stay on these drugs for a full five years.

Please read on to learn more about what’s involved and who can participate. If this study isn’t right for you, please pass it on to your family members or friends!

What's the study about?

The purpose of this study is to learn more about how women taking hormonal therapies for breast cancer treatment feel about their medications. The research team needs 300 women to participate in this study.
What's involved?

If you sign up for the “Women’s Hormonal Therapy Initiation and Persistence (WHIP) Study” the research team will contact you to confirm that you are eligible. If you are eligible and choose to participate in the study, you will be asked to do the following:

• Sign and initial the consent form.
• Complete a baseline telephone interview. This will last approximately one hour and will include questions about your perceptions of treatments and how you feel about interactions with your healthcare providers.
• Complete three follow-up interviews over approximately 36 months.
• Provide the research team access to your pharmacy records so they can assess medication adherence.
• Optional: provide a saliva sample using a kit sent to you in the mail. The research team is interested in exploring if all women process (metabolize) their treatment medications the same way. The kit and the postage to return the kit in the mail are provided at no cost to you.

Your participation in this study will not affect your medical care and all information will be kept confidential.
Who is conducting the study?

This study is conducted by Dr. Vanessa Sheppard, Associate Professor of Oncology at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. This research is being sponsored by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Where?

Anywhere in the United States – all participation will be conducted on the telephone and in the mail
Who can participate?

You can sign up for the Women’s Hormonal Therapy Initiation and Persistence (WHIP) Study if you meet ALL of these MAIN criteria:

• You are female and over the age of 21
• You were diagnosed with any stage of breast cancer (Stage 0 – IV)
• You have been diagnosed with ER + breast cancer
• You are prescribed and/or taking hormonal therapy
• You live in the United States

After you RSVP, the research team will contact you to ask additional questions to be sure that the study is a good fit for you.

https://www.armyofwomen.org/

[Carol Ann]

I signed up.

Carol Ann

[snolan]

I signed up.

[Lisalou]

Just signed up, too

[sarah]

filled it in, waiting to see if I'm signed in or not.
I wonder if they adjusted the doses to fit patients if that would work better. It is worrying that so many are unable to handle taking them. I would have been too petrified to stop taking them. In fact I took Femara for 6 years in the days you were supposed to only take it for 5. the 10 year time only came out a year or more after I'd stopped or I would have stayed on it longer. I've had side effects from everything I've ever taken but I'm still here so my belief is in doing whatever it takes. The radiation had the worst side effects for me personally.
I do hope they find a way to make taking these drugs easier for those who've been having problems which is why I signed up but I hope those who went off them, will sign up so they can work on a way to make them easier to take. I found chemo much harder so it surprises me that those who managed chemo had this problem. Could it be an allergy to something in it?

[LeahM]

Joined the women under 40 study

[Jean]

I am in....
jean

[Coux92]

Thanks Paula, I registered too

[LuckyLinda]

I signed up and have been contacted. I have been taking Femara nightly for 2 years and my oncologist told me at my last visit (every 4 months now) that he will probably recommend I stay on it for the rest of my life as recent studies have shown that it significantly decreases the chance of recurrence. So.........whatever it takes. I have a lot of pain in my feet/spine/hips/hands but I'm not sure that I wouldn't have it anyway as I am 66 years old, have arthritis and degenerative disc disease in my spine and have muscle weakness issues related to polio (which I contracted at age 15 months). Ibuprofen 600 mg. three times a day usually relieves the pain. I also was thrown from a horse (1st time ever on a horse) 3 days before Christmas and suffered 4 broken ribs and a punctured lung requiring chest tube placement. It took 6 months to recover from the broken ribs and associated pain and stiffness. I have trouble walking (due to the polio), but I ride a bicycle and have worked my way up to 10 miles a day. I am almost 3 years post right mastectomy with positive lymph nodes (2), had TCH chemo, continued on Herceptin for a full year and went through 28 rads. I had my implants placed in April 2013. (Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither, it seems, is the reconstructed breast). So far I am NED and hope to stay that way.