Breast Cancer Advice Center

How long should a 50 yr old woman having breast cancer 10 yrs back continue letrozole 2.5mg ?

My mother had breast cancer 10 yrs back. It was metastatic which spread upto the axilary lymph nodes. She had her surgery followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. After that she was on tamoxifen for three yrs. She is now OK. But doctor has suggested her to continue taking femara (letrozole 2.5mg). She is now on femara for more than 1 yr. But how long she should continue femara?

Public Comments

1. Breast cancer that is only in the lymph nodes and breast and nowhere else in the body is not actually considered metastatic. So first you need to clarify for yourself whether it really was metastastic disease or not.
   
   Personally I would take anything I could for as long as I could to prevent my breast cancer from coming back. In particular, breast cancers that have hormone receptors, which your mom's apparently did, can come back many, many years out from the original diagnosis. Once it is stage IV it is no longer curable.
   
   I don't know what the exact statistics are on how long she should take Femara, but if there is anything the doctor can give and she can live with the side effects, TAKE IT. I have a form of breast cancer for which chemotherapy is the ONLY treatment. It would be great if I had something like tamoxifen or Femara that would help, but I don't.
   
   Your mom should count her blessings that she does.
2. She must continue until the doctor says so coz there is an increased risk of the cancer coming back.
3. wow my step mom had breast cancer and she took tamoxifen for 5 years & then she was able to stop, maybe your moms' doctor wants her to take it a bit longer since it had spread to her lymph nodes.