Findings for chemotherapy-free patients with breast cancer<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
WEDNESDAY, June 29, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Adjuvant hormone therapy (AHT)-related hot flashes predict worse breast cancer outcomes among patients in clinical routine practice, according to a study recently published in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network<\/em>.<\/p>\n Erwei Zeng, from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues used data from the National Quality Registry for Breast Cancer, the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register, and the Swedish Cause-of-Death Register to identify 7,152 chemotherapy-free patients with breast cancer who initiated AHT in Stockholm from 2006 through 2019. Patients were followed until 2020.<\/p>\n The researchers found that patients who newly used drugs for hot flashes shortly after AHT initiation had worse disease-free survival (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.67) and a higher treatment discontinuation rate (adjusted HR, 1.47). Stronger associations between drugs for hot flashes and discontinuation of AHT were seen among low-income patients (adjusted HR, 1.91) and those without first-degree relatives who had cancer (adjusted HR, 1.81) or died from cancer (adjusted HR, 1.71).<\/p>\n “The identification of adverse effects by the initiation of hot flash medications may identify a subset of patients with more severe hot flashes who are more likely to discontinue AHT and need more support for treatment adherence,” the authors write.<\/p>\n