Each year millions of women experience the discomfort of hot flashes that can accompany menopause. However, many postmenopausal women with breast cancer who are taking tamoxifen must also endure the additional burden of hot flashes as a part of their treatment. Recognizing the discomfort of his own patients, Dr. Pandya created a study to find out if clonidine could reduce hot flashes in breast cancer patients taking tamoxifen. Tamoxifen, an antiestrogen medicine commonly used for treating breast cancer, often causes hot flashes as a side effect.
Hot flashes can be uncomfortable and disrupt a woman's normal activities, including sleep.
Estrogen replacement hormones are used to treat hot flashes in women without breast cancer but cannot be used in breast cancer patients because they might cause the cancer to grow. Some studies have shown that clonidine, a medicine sometimes used to treat high blood pressure, can reduce hot flashes in women who have gone through natural menopause, but other studies have not shown that effect. In this investigation 194 postmenopausal women participated. These women were taking tamoxifen as part of their breast cancer treatment. Patients were randomly assigned to take either a clonidine pill once a day or placebo pill that looked like the clonidine pill but contained no active ingredients for eight weeks.