This is normal. Chapter 8 provides more information about how you might feel and where to get help. Some less common side effects of chemotherapy are diarrhoea, mouth sores, and other infections. Action Ask your medical oncologist what side effects you might expect and how to manage them. Some breast cancers need the hormone oestrogen to grow.
Tamoxifen is an 'anti-oestrogen' drug.
This means that Tamoxifen slows or stops the growth of cancer cells that are already in the body and need oestrogen to grow. It does this by preventing the body's own oestrogen from entering the cancer cells. This deprives the cells of oestrogen and speeds up their natural death. Tamoxifen is absorbed into the bloodstream and carried to all parts of the body. In this way, it also reaches cancer cells that may have broken away from the main cancer and slows or stops them from growing.