In cases where a cancer is more advanced, sometimes we recommend waiting six months to a year just to be sure that we can follow the area very, very closely. Even if breast cancer has already spread to the lymph nodes or even somewhere else in the body, it's definitely still worth treating. The majority of women who have cancer in their lymph nodes can still be treated for a potential cure. When there is disease elsewhere in the body, not everybody can be told that they can be treated for potential cure. However there still is a percentage of these women who can have potential for long-term cure with chemotherapy or other methods.
Tamoxifen has side effects that are both medical and also physical.
The most common side effects are actually ones that do not pose a medical problem for the patient. These include hot flashes, relatively mild weight gain and in some women, some depression. The medical side effect that has been discussed most has been an increased risk of uterine cancer. Compared to women not using tamoxifen, women who are taking it have a threefold increase in their risk of uterine cancer. In terms of absolute numbers of cases, there are about 1 in 1,000 women in the general population who develop uterine cancer, and about 3 in 1,000 women taking tamoxifen will develop it.