Purpose: The most prominent toxicity from the antiestrogenic agent tamoxifen is hot flashes. The objective of this project was to better describe the incidence and severity of hot flashes in younger women receiving tamoxifen.
Patients and methods: This article reports the vasomotor effects associated with the initiation of tamoxifen in 27 women aged < 50 years, most of whom were premenopausal and had received chemotherapy. It then compares the results from these women to results from women aged > 50 years, who participated in a previous similar study. Hot flash data in both studies were obtained by utilizing a validated hot flash diary.
Results: Fifty-nine percent of the women aged < 50 years experienced significant hot flashes; women who were postmenopausal reported more severe trouble with hot flashes, compared with premenopausal women. There was a trend toward more severe hot flashes in women who had received chemotherapy. When data from both studies were combined and analyzed by menopausal status and whether hot flashes had occurred during menopause, both factors were related to more hot flash trouble. Hot flashes were more prominent in postmenopausal women who had significant previous history of hot flashes, compared with those without a significant history of hot flashes.
Conclusion: Premenopausal women, and postmenopausal women without a previous significant history of hot flashes, appear to have less trouble with tamoxifen-associated hot flashes, compared with postmenopausal women with a previous history of moderate or worse hot flashes.