FRIDAY, Oct. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Most breast cancer patients prefer to take tamoxifen and other hormone therapies as daily tablets rather than monthly injections, but would switch if it resulted in fewer hot flashes, according to a study published online Oct. 20 in the Annals of Oncology.
Lesley Fallowfield, Ph.D., of the University of Sussex, U.K., and colleagues asked 208 patients if they preferred daily tablets or monthly injections.
The researchers found that 63% of the patients preferred daily tablets because they liked the convenience and disliked needles while 24.5% preferred injections and 12.5% had no preference. But when asked to imagine a scenario in which monthly injections resulted in fewer hot flashes, the patients' injection preference increased to 60.6%. When asked to imagine if twice-monthly injections improved efficacy, the patients' injection preference increased to 74.5%.
"If different routes of administration exist, then these merit appropriate discussion and consideration alongside other clinical benefits," the authors conclude.
The study was funded by an unrestricted grant from AstraZeneca.
