Why is managing hot flashes important?
Connections to cancer outcomes
Side effects of adjuvanttreatment applied after initial treatment for cancer, especially to suppress secondary tumor formation hormone therapy such as tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors can become severe enough for people to stop treatment, leading to worse cancer outcomes, including poorer survival. Hot flashes are one of the side effects of these treatments.
Connections to side effects and symptoms
Hot flashes can interfere with the quality of sleep.2Alschuler LN, Gazella KA. The Definitive Guide to Cancer, 3rd Edition: An Integrative Approach to Prevention, Treatment, and Healing. Berkeley, California: Celestial Arts. 2010. Preliminary evidencesignificant effects in small or poorly designed clinical studies OR conflicting results in adequate studies but a preponderance of evidence of an effect (this is the CancerChoices definition; other researchers and studies may define this differently) shows better measures of sleep and sleep quality among people with breast cancer experiencing daily hot flashes who had reduced hot flash severity and/or frequency after treatment with either electroacupuncture or gabapentin. People treated with electroacupuncture reported better overall sleep outcomes, while people treated with gabapentin reported improvements only in sleep duration and quality.3Garland SN, Xie SX et al. Comparative effectiveness of electro-acupuncture versus gabapentin for sleep disturbances in breast cancer survivors with hot flashes: a randomized trial. Menopause. 2017 May;24(5):517-523.
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