Hello
This month in our Health in Focus series, we’re looking at targeted therapies. Cancer cells behave differently from healthy cells in a number of ways. These behaviours can make them more vulnerable to damage. Targeted therapies are drugs that disrupt this abnormal behaviour, causing the cells to die.
Targeted therapies are usually given in addition to surgery and chemotherapy for ovarian cancer, as maintenance therapies. Their role is to reduce the risk of the cancer recurring and to prolong the time between treatments if it does. This can give people longer periods of feeling well before they next need treatment.
Because targeted therapies are less likely to affect healthy cells, many people find that their side effects are more tolerable than chemotherapy and become easier to manage over time. As with any drug, some people will find them easier to tolerate than others. If you’re experiencing side effects that are difficult to cope with, your team may be able to reduce the dose, which can make them more manageable
Our information booklet about targeted therapies is available at:
ovacome.org.uk/targeted-the...
In this third post in our series on targeted therapies for ovarian cancer, we will be focusing on hormone therapies, which are drugs that stop the activity of the hormone oestrogen in the body.
Hormone therapy for ovarian cancer can also be offered as an alternative to chemotherapy for people whose ovarian cancer has come back, if chemotherapy is not an option or if they choose not to have it.
We’ll look first at hormone therapy availability, how they’re given and their side effects and then we’ll outline how they work.
The drugs most often used as hormone therapy in ovarian cancer are Letrozole and Tamoxifen. Both of these drugs are tablets (and tamoxifen is also available as a syrup), so you can take them at home and don’t need to go to hospital for your treatment.
As both drugs inhibit the same hormone, their side effects are similar, although there are some differences between them. They are similar to the symptoms of the menopause, as they are caused by changes in hormone levels. Some common side effects of hormone therapy include:
•Hot flushes;
•Vaginal bleeding, dryness and itching (seek medical advice if you have unexpected vaginal bleeding or bleeding that lasts for more than a few days);
•Nausea;
•Tiredness;
•Headaches;
•Thinning hair;
•Leg cramps and muscle pain.
This isn’t a complete list of potential side effects, and you can find more information about the side effects of each individual drug in the links at the end of this post.
Hormones are ‘chemical messengers’ that are released into the bloodstream and tell cells to do something. Different cells respond to different hormones, depending on their function. Cells that are responsive to oestrogen have proteins on their surface called receptors that are the right shape to let oestrogen molecules pass through them into the cell.
Some ovarian cancer tumours contain cells that have oestrogen receptors on their surface, so they divide in response to oestrogen. Tumours with a high percentage of these cells are referred to as ‘oestrogen receptor positive.’ This means that oestrogen promotes growth of the tumour.
Hormone therapies stop oestrogen from promoting tumour growth. The two drugs that we mentioned above do this in slightly different ways. Letrozole stops oestrogen from being made in some tissues, so reducing the amount of it in the body. Tamoxifen attaches to the oestrogen receptors and ‘blocks’ them so that the oestrogen can’t pass through them into the cells.
If you have surgery to remove your tumour, samples of the tumour will be taken, examined under a microscope and tested to find out more about the type of cancer you have. This includes looking at the percentage of tumour cells that have oestrogen receptors.
If your tumour has enough cells with receptors to be defined as oestrogen receptor positive, this increases the chance that hormone therapies will help to shrink the tumour or stop it from growing. If you haven’t gone through the natural menopause, you may also be advised not to have hormone replacement therapy (HRT), as this involves oestrogen.
You can find more information about hormone therapies at:
macmillan.org.uk/cancer-inf...
about-cancer.cancerresearch...
macmillan.org.uk/cancer-inf...
about-cancer.cancerresearch...
If you would like to share your experiences of hormone therapy or have any tips on it, please comment on this post. If you would like information or support, please contact our Support Line on 07503 682 311 or email support@ovacome.org.uk.
Best wishes
Julia (Support Services Officer)
|Why do we all have to undergo continuous \"Oncologists guess\" Toxic treatments without benefit?
Good news from ~Anwen Jones today!!
Target ovarian cancer leaflet.
Maintenance therapies?
Target ovarian cancer
