This week's artwork was donated by Sharon, a pediatric cancer patient who received treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia . This is a response to a question about the possibility of tamoxifen-induced cancer. My sister has breast cancer. She has been on a drug called tamoxifen For about 2 years. She recently started bleeding as if having a period.
Tamoxifen is a medication that is commonly used to treat breast cancer .
It functions by blocking the ability of estrogen to stimulate growth of breast cancer cells. There is conflicting data as to whether or not tamoxifen can cause endometrial cancer. Some studies have shown that women who take tamoxifen have higher rates of endometrial cancer compared to those not on tamoxifen. However, other studies have suggested that tamoxifen has little or no impact on the development of endometrial cancer. Tamoxifen has also been associated with the development of benign endometrial polyps.