Musculoskeletal side–effects from breast cancer treatment are not long term
The Intergroup Exemestane Study (IES), which revealed a drug treatment strategy that cuts a women’s risk of dying from breast cancer but also gives a higher risk of carpal tunnel syndrome, has now found that this side effect does not persist once treatment has finished.
Women diagnosed with early stage oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer are often given drugs for five years after surgery to help prevent the disease coming back. The IES study found that survival rates were higher for women who changed to the drug exemestane after two to three years of tamoxifen treatment, compared to women who remained on tamoxifen.
However these women also experienced higher rates of carpal tunnel syndrome, which occurs when a nerve in the wrist is compressed, leading to pain and muscle weakness in the fingers and hand. A more detailed analysis of the side-effects has now found that patients who developed carpal tunnel syndrome in this study suffered it for six months on average.
Professor Judith Bliss, Director of the Clinical Trials and Statistics Unit at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR-CTSU), said: We found more than half of patients who developed this side-effect had surgery, but the vast majority were able to continue their treatment for breast cancer and did not experience carpal tunnel syndrome once their treatment had concluded.”
