Spotlight on cancer research

A trial led by Professor Susan Davis AO, Head of the Women’s Health Research Program at Monash’s Public Health and Preventive Medicine, has offered the first possibility of menopausal symptom relief for women with a certain type of breast cancer.

The multicentre Phase II randomised controlled trial involved 131 women and showed the novel drug Q-122 significantly reduced the number and severity of troublesome hot flushes and night sweats in women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. It also improved their sleep and had no serious adverse effects.

The results, published in The Lancet, are important as they may hold the key to encouraging women with breast cancer to continue with long-term adjuvant endocrine therapy – including tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors – that reduce the risk of relapse. Many of these women are prescribed this therapy for five to ten years post treatment.

Around 70 per cent of women taking these adjuvants experience troublesome menopausal side effects, and over one third of them discontinue them prematurely as a result. Until now, standard menopausal symptom relief has been hormonal in nature, which is contra-indicated for women taking tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors