Taxanes May Offer Some Protection Against Chemotherapy-Induced Menopause By Megan Rauscher (excerpts) Women with breast cancer who receive a taxane in addition to standard anthracycline-based chemotherapy seem to have a lower risk of chemotherapy-related amenorrhea than women who do not receive a taxane. This information was presented at the 27th annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Risk factors for losing 'normal' mensturation include patient age and total cumulative dose of alkylating agent. Dr. DeMichele and her colleagues are looking at this issue in a longitudinal study of women with breast cancer. Early data on 72 women who were premenopausal at diagnosis suggest lower rates of chemotherapy-related amenorrhea in those treated with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide plus any taxane compared with those treated with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide alone (59% vs 71%). In relative numbers this means that women who received a taxane were 40% less likely to permanently lose their menstural cycles (periods). "Even though this is a pretty impressive odds ratio - 0.59 - it is not statistically significant," she emphasized. "We need to accrue a greater number of patients to be able to say with a degree of certainty that this is what the estimates are going to be." Nonetheless, "these data do suggest that taxanes seem to have a big impact" on chemotherapy-related amenorrhea, she said. Dr. DeMichele suggested a next step will involve pharmacogenomic studies, which are already planned. Source: Reuters Health, 12/09/04 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.