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Concerned about the side effects of anastrozole
Breast Cancer | Last Active: Nov 21 7:48am | Replies (1935)Comment receiving replies
Hi All- Like many on this thread I had breast cancer and radiation, and am now taking Anastrozole. The hot flashed are fairly mild, but after two months I am getting a lot of joint aches all over. My question is- is this drug doing irrepairable damage to my joints? In five years if I stop, will my joints be fine? I am a dancer and have never had joint pain before, so I am concerned and want to remain as active as possible, while still lowering my chance of a cancer reoccurrence. Thanks for your help. Denise
Replies to "Hi All- Like many on this thread I had breast cancer and radiation, and am now..."
@dmgweiss - I was on Femura and had terrible joint pain that impacted my sleep and quality of life. After reviewing my oncotype and mammoprint, my oncologist decided I had a very low chance of reoccurrence and put me on Tamoxifen. Its much better, with only a bit of joint pain. I exercise every day and take a lot of supplements. Also, I received permission to take an endocrine holiday while on vacation for 2 weeks. You have choices.
@dmgweiss - Denise, Due to bad reaction to anastrozole, I was switched to letrozole. Still having the bad joint aches, but I've found by slowly increasing vitamin D capsules to 5,000 dosage that that helps. I'm also walking an hour every other day and on the "off" days swim about 1/2 hour and do the breast cancer strength training classes taught by our Phys Therapy Dept. I've also recently added a 1-hr class (once weekly) of qi gong. With your history of dancing, probably all the stretching exercises you do will also help. All the best to you.
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@dmgweiss
I've been on anastrozole for 18 months now (at half a mg/day). At first, the joint, bone, muscle pain was extensive, but now has subsided. I continue to exercise daily in any event. It is often the case for patients going on anastrozole (or any AI) to have a DEXA Bone Density Scan of spine and hip at some point prior to going on an AI, along with a Vitamin D blood serum test... for a very good reason. AIs can risk loss of bone mineral density, leading to osteoporosis and fractures. You need to have a baseline test, and another two years later to see if there are changes (like osteopenia).
There are trade-offs... like most things in life. On the one hand, patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancers experience a significant reduction in recurrence while taking AIs. On the other hand, there can be a loss of bone mineral density, as noted above. Oncologists believe that they can deal with the significant loss of bone mineral density by giving those patients denosumab, biophosphonates, and such.
If your baseline bone density is favorable, however, daily exercise, keeping your vitamin D above 40, and taking good quality fish oil should help keep it that way, and help with the arthralgia which many experience. So far, it's my impression that the joint pain from AIs is not the same thing as joint damage (which is not a reported side effect of AIs).