Side-Effects Main Reason for Abandoning Breast Cancer Medications

One in three women stop taking drugs to treat breast cancer as the side effects are worse than previously thought

One in three women stop taking drugs to treat breast cancer as the side effects are worse than previously thought, according to a new survey by Northwestern University.

The researchers found that more than 36 percent of postmenopausal women suffering from breast cancer opt to stop taking the drugs due to a large number of side effects that were far worse than previously thought.

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Lead researcher Lynne Wagner said that the exact impact of side effects caused by the drugs is not known as women often do not tell them.

One of the most common side effects that lead women to stop taking the drugs was joint pain while the drugs are also known to cause weight gain, vaginal dryness and moodiness. “Now we're appreciating that there's a significant gap between patient-reported symptoms and provider-reported symptoms. That gap widens when we're talking about more subjective symptoms, things like pain or fatigue that only a patient can report”, Wagner said.

Source-Medindia

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