battle of the letrozole brands

Hi.  It looks like my onc. Will be swapping my tamoxifen for letrozole next week as I will have done 2 years on it and they think it is best to change to post menopausal meds.

Does anyone know if you have a break in between or if you just change straight over.   Must say I'm really not looking forward to it.

Thanks Tracey 

Just as a total aside, has anyone noticed hair getting curlier when on Letrozole? I didn’t have chemo or rads, just mx and implant which was repeated 30 hours later due to a haematoma, hair went a bit thinner, probably due to the stress of everything, but is definitely wavier/curlier than it was.....

hugs xxx

I can totally vouch for that, my hair has been so straight my whole life I was always envious of my sisters curls now we are like twins. I love it to be honest. I am so grateful I have hair as I know not everyone's hair does grow back.

Hi GC

I just looked at your profile which is not recent but I also had no Chemo, which is a worry to me with what was a 4.5CM tumour and in lymph nodes! Was your lymph node a 4mm or 0.4mm? xx

Sharon. xx

Hello Cuppatime

I am in similar position to you. I am on Dr Reddys for some time now and a local pharmacy has a stash with my name on. When they ran out some time ago I contacted the distributor and explained the situation. Following day I received call from the pharmacy saying he had managed to get some. ( I dont know who contacted whom).

My pharmacy is a local independent and well known in the area for helping people out,

I do have some side effects but they are definitely bearable. I even notice slight changes when the batch number changes, The trouble is Letrozole messes with your system but because we have to take it we soldier on. I have started to have reactions / intolerance to  other stuff e.g. milk, sugar, processed foods and some wines.  Kept me off the junk food at Christmas and now I have lost the taste for it and dont get tempted with stuff the family expect.

Good luck 

BIG HUG

Cathy

hi 

yes, the lymph node one was 4mm, almost half the size of the node (9mm) so I thought quite big.... and never detected beforehand which was surprising since it was checked twice by ultrasound.

The tumour removed was 18mm, initially diagnosed as 14mm but due to no clear margins it was further excised.

My surgeon mentioned he managed to find only one other sentinel node and that one was clear. I had surgery in February last year and still have a green tinge in the bottom half of my breast, so I guess that indeed I do have fewer nodes to remove the invasive dye... I am not sure if that is good or bad as any cancer cells have to go somewhere, but I rather not think about that.

I asked about chemo at the time but they said there was no real benefit to me, although as my treatment developed they also changed their mind about booster radiation sessions. Initially I was to get 4, but these were cancelled as again, they felt I would not benefit based on where the original tumour was (against my skin) and so in effect it could not further spread, so to speak.

I had 8/8 Estroegen and 6/6 Progestron, so really at the tip of the scale so I am guessing that the letrozole + radiation will do the trick. What scares me is what will happen 10 years down the line as this type of cancer seems to lie dormant for a long time...\

GC

hello and everyone else interested in the cost of letrozole

there is a website listing the costs of some of the brands

https://bnf.nice.org.uk/medicinal-forms/letrozole.html

strangely, CIPLA is not on that list and that was the one bothering me most.

It is made by an Indian company.

I asked my GP if I could get letrzole Femara as I had read it was causing fewer side effects. However this was denied as apparently this would increase my medication cost by £900 per year. When I spoke to the hospital they said they could insist though as of course they would rather have me continue then run the risk of recurrence, which would be a lot more costly...

GC

Hi GC

Thank you for your reply, I'm always keen to hear from anyone else not being given Chemo. RT Boosts are an interesting one to me too, not sure who gets them?  I agree further down the road is a concern but new stuff is being developed all the time and they have told me Breast Cancer is the most developed and researched of all Cancers in the last 10 years.

Take Care,

Sharon. xx

Hiya, just to chip in that I'm on Crescent brand.  I've only been on it for 5 weeks, but it's been fine for me so far.  I haven't tried any others.

Betty xxx

hi Sharon

yes I totally agree about things developing and hopeful that one day a blood test will be able to detect any recurrence, really do believe in that.

with regards to boosters I was told that in the case of high grade the original bed where the invasive cancer was located is targeted. for me the high grade was in the DCIS and as this was completely removed they were confident there was no need for the booster, more so as the invasive cancer was against the skin and that had 1mm margin on one side, rest all clear margins.

So I am crossing my fingers now.

GC