Side effects may be good in breast cancer

Women who experience side effects, such as hot flushes, night sweats and joint pain, when taking the breast cancer treatments tamoxifen or Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca's Arimidex (anastrozole), are less likely to have a recurrence of the disease, according to a study published in The Lancet Oncology.

The findings of the ATAC trial of 4,000 women suggest that the 37.5% of women taking the medications who experience hot flushes and night sweats after three months of treatment had 10% less chance of disease recurrence. Subjects who experienced joint pain had an even greater chance of the therapy being successful.

The article noted that the likely cause of the effect was that the treatments kill tumors by starving them of estrogen, and a lack of estrogen is known to cause the side effects.