Does faslodex work for estrogen negative receptor breast cancer? Thanks?

Answer 1

Hormonal (really anti-hormonal) therapies for breast cancer change the balance of estrogen in the body. The effect of these treatments is to block hormones that can stimulate growth of breast cancer cells in breast cancers with hormone receptors. Hormonal therapies can prevent cancer from coming back (recurrence) in early breast cancer or control disease in advanced breast cancer.

When a breast cancer is removed or a biopsy is done, one of the tests in the laboratory determines whether or not there are estrogen and/or progesterone receptors on your breast cancer cells. These receptors are like “docking stations” that the hormones estrogen and progesterone can connect to and stimulate the growth of breast cancer. When the receptors are present, the breast cancer is estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and /or progesterone receptor positive (PR+). If the breast cancer cells have estrogen and/or progesterone receptors, this predicts that the hormonal therapies will be a useful part of your treatment. If your breast cancer cells have few or no estrogen or progesterone receptors (ER-negative, PR-negative) it is unlikely that the anti-estrogen therapies will benefit you.

If either of the hormone receptors is positive (ER+ or PR+), then the hormone therapies are used as a treatment for early stage breast cancer. Large clinical trials have shown that hormone therapies can prevent recurrence and death from breast cancer. Hormone therapies can also be used to treat a recurrence in the breast and lymph nodes or to treat advanced or metastatic breast cancer (outside the breast in other organs, eg bone).

If you are pre-menopausal (still having periods, menstruating) most of your estrogen is made in your ovaries. If you are post-menopausal (no menstrual periods for a year, often confirmed by blood tests) you still produce small amounts of estrogen in your body - just not in the ovary. The adrenal glands (near your kidneys) produce a hormone, androstenedione (a weak male hormone) that is then changed into estrogen by an enzyme called aromatase. The aromatase enzyme is found in many cells including fat and muscle. Therefore, whether you are pre or post menopausal will effect your treatment options for hormone therapy. Blocking estrogen stimulation of hormone receptor positive breast cancer is the goal in both pre- and post-menopausal women, but the treatment strategies may be different.

Fulvestrant, also known as ICI 182,780, and "Faslodex" is a drug treatment of hormone receptor positive metastatic breast cancer in post-menopausal women with disease progression following anti-estrogen therapy. It is an estrogen receptor antagonist with no agonist effects, which works both by down-regulating and by degrading the estrogen receptor. It is administered as a once-monthly injection.

Fulvestrant is marketed by AstraZeneca with the brand name Faslodex.

So, Faslodex will work for estrogen negative receptor breast cancer. Wish all the best.-

Answer 2

First, you probably mean estrogen receptor negative and not estrogen negative receptor. Your question appears straightforward but does not qualify whether pt is pre-or post menopausal and at what stage of disease.
I suggest you read the faslodex website ( www.faslodex.com). It has good information including how faslodex works and what type of pts will likely benefit from it.
Some important points: Faslodex is a type of hormonal treatment for post-menopausal pts with estrogen receptor positive metastatic breast cancer.
Estrogen receptor negative breast cancer in general does not benefit from hormone therapy.
Normal breast tissue has estrogen receptors so it is not surprising that some but not all breast cancer cells will express this receptor too. In that case, these estrogen receptor positive breast can cells likely thrive on estrogen present in the body for them to grow, divide, multiply, spread, etc. For those that are negative for estrogen receptor, they likely depend on signals or stimuli other than estrogen to tell the cancer cells to do their " bad things." In such cases, blocking estrogen receptors like what Faslodex does is not helpful. So the answer to your question is no, faslodex does not work in estrogen receptor negative breast cancer. I know my answer contradicts the one before me. Please read the website but more importantly talk face-to-face with a responsible physician like an oncologist who can give you more information.