Has anyone got first hand experience of taking Tamoxifen as their first method of treatment before any surgery or radio/chemo? Pre-menopausal so I can’t take anything else.
I’m wondering if it actually works for shrinking tumours or not, as my hospital won’t do surgery yet due to COVID-19.
Hi,
I’m in the same position, week 5 of Tamoxifen. I asked the question in the nurses section here forum.breastcancernow.org/t5/Questions-about-primary-breast/Tamoxifen-and-tumor-shrinkage/m-p/1330832#M9592 as I couldn’t find any solid data.
I spoke to my BC nurse and she was very positive about results in other ladies she’d seen taking Tamoxifen who were unable to have surgery for various reasons, but was unable to provide data.
Was interested to see this clinical trial - not eligible but wish I was cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/a-study-looking-at-changing-the-order-you-have-treatment-for-breast-cancer-neo-rt.
At the moment I want to give the Tamoxifen at least 3 months to see if it is shrinking my tumor. Current state of play means I need a mastectomy, which I’d be OK with if I could have a reconstruction but that’s not going to happen with the Covid19 situation. So ideally it may shrink enough for a lumpectomy to be viable, or at least stay stable to enable me to wait until mastectomy with immediate reconstruction is available once more.
Also considering asking them if I could have radiotherapy prior to surgery as per the aforementioned trial, not sure what they’ll say about that!