Tamoxifen now or after radiotherapy

Going through breast cancer treatment Hormone therapy
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Hi! My first post :blush:
I had surgery for Stage 1 Grade 2 ILC with 5 negative lymph nodes early March. Saw Oncologist last week and was prescribed Tamoxifen. He told me to ask radiation consultant whether to take now or start after radiotherapy.
Had planning CT for radiotherapy today and starting 10 sessions in 2 weeks’ time.
Radiotherapist said was up to myself but not sure whether to start now or when radiotherapy finishes … just wondering re other people’s experience. So nervous of side effects of Tamoxifen :disappointed_relieved:
Thanks x

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Hi, I did Google when was the best time to start Letrozole and I only found one study which suggested 3 weeks prior to radiotherapy. I don’t think there is any strong evidence either way.

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I finished chemo last week and will be having radiotherapy, probably in May. I was told to by bcn and onc to start letrozol 3 weeks after finishing chemo, to give my body chance to recover. They specifically said RT made no difference to letrozole.

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Welcome to the forum , I started Tamoxifen after I finished radiotherapy as I
didn’t want to cope with two sets of side effects at the same time but the decision was left to me .

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Hello Valentine1
I started tamoxifen the day after I got the prescription, that was 2 weeks before radiotherapy. The first two months side effects were very little: bloating and disgestive disconfort, on 3rd months eventual hot flushes started.
My tumour was grade 3 and oncotype score said that chemo was less than 2% beneficial to me, so I was very much into taking everything treatment wise.

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My oncologist said it was ok to start after radiotherapy finished. I had surgery, then chemo then radio. They said to wait as my body had been dealing with enough and to only deal with side effects of one thing at a time. I started it a week after finishing radiotherapy x

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Thanks everyone for the replies. Lots of different opinions so I will have a good think about it x

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Hi. I started tamoxifen in December and my side effects were so much better after letrozole and zoladax! Now hardly any. Good luck with radiotherapy. I was ok with that too so hopefully you will be :pray:t2: x

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Very reassuring hearing you had minimal side effects. Thanks x

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Hi valentine1
Welcome to the forum. I think it is a matter of personal choice, I am on Letrozole that is similar to Tamoxifen and it was left up to me to decide when to take it. I chose to take after I finished radiotherapy just so I could think of it as finishing one stage before starting another stage of treatment.

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Hi my oncologist advised srarting after radiotheraphy so if either the radiotherapy or tamoxifen caused side effects you would know which one was causing it. BTW I had no side effects from either. Good luck

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