Clinical Experience & Use Side Effects and Coping

Empowering patients to manage side effects

Patients taking ARIMIDEX may experience treatment-related side effects.9 Common side effects in women taking ARIMIDEX included hot flashes, nausea, depression, and joint disorders such as arthralgia.10

Side effects can affect adherence

For some patients, the discomfort of side effects could be enough to affect adherence or influence them to discontinue treatment.3,11

  • Ongoing, candid discussions with your patients about side effects and their management may help12,13
  • Patients may need to hear that side effects are relatively short term while hormonal treatment has long-term benefits12,13
  • Data from the ATAC 100-month trial results analysis can be helpful in this discussion1,12
  • Discuss adherence and persistence to treatment with your patients at every office visit.

Addressing side effects

Consider addressing side effects with patients regularly throughout treatment.12 In addition to medical interventions appropriate for individual patients, you can provide your patients with simple, nonpharmacologic coping tips that encourage them to take responsibility for their overall health and wellness. A list of potential side effects and techniques for managing them is available to your patients at the patient support Web site IN YOUR CORNER™.

A useful publication about managing side effects for your patients

You may want to provide your patients with this brochure, which contains strategies and tips for managing the symptoms and side effects they may experience on hormonal treatment. These tips help your patient see the discomfort of side effects in relation to the long-term benefits of treatment. Simple, common sense techniques help your patient become an active partner in managing side effects.

Download the brochure for your patients

To view the download, you need Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® installed. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer, you can download it from the Adobe Web site.

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Important Information About Arimidex® (anastrozole) Tablets

Arimidex is indicated for adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer.

Arimidex is indicated for first-line treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive or hormone receptor-unknown locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer and for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women with disease progression following tamoxifen therapy. Patients with estrogen receptor-negative disease and patients who did not respond to previous tamoxifen therapy rarely responded to Arimidex.

Important Safety Information About Arimidex

  • Arimidex is only for postmenopausal women. Arimidex can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Before starting treatment with Arimidex, pregnancy must be excluded (see WARNINGS section of full Prescribing Information)
  • In women with preexisting ischemic heart disease 465/6186 (7.5%), an increased incidence of ischemic cardiovascular events occurred with Arimidex (17%) vs tamoxifen (10%). In this patient population, angina pectoris was reported in 25/216 (11.6%) vs 13/249 (5.2%) and myocardial infarction was reported in 2/216 (0.9%) vs 8/249 (3.2%) patients receiving Arimidex and tamoxifen, respectively
  • Compared to baseline, Arimidex showed a mean decrease in both lumbar spine and total hip bone mineral density. Tamoxifen showed a mean increase in these measurements. Nine percent of patients receiving Arimidex had an elevated serum cholesterol vs 3.5% of patients receiving tamoxifen
  • Common side effects seen with Arimidex vs tamoxifen in the early breast cancer trial after 5 years of treatment include hot flashes (36% vs 41%), joint disorders (including arthritis, arthrosis, arthralgia) (36% vs 29%), asthenia (19% vs 18%), mood disturbances (19% vs 18%), pain (17% vs 16%), pharyngitis (14% vs 14%), nausea and vomiting (13% vs 12%), rash (11% vs 13%), depression (13% vs 12%), hypertension (13% vs 11%), osteoporosis (11% vs 7%), peripheral edema (10% vs 11%), lymphedema (10% vs 11%), back pain (10% vs 10%), insomnia (10% vs 9%), and headache (10% vs 8%). Fractures, including fractures of the spine, hip, and wrist, occurred more often with Arimidex vs tamoxifen (10% vs 7%)
  • In the advanced breast cancer studies, the most common (occurring with an incidence of >10%) side effects occurring in women taking Arimidex included hot flashes, nausea, asthenia, pain, headache, back pain, bone pain, increased cough, dyspnea, pharyngitis, and peripheral edema. Joint pain/stiffness has been reported in association with the use of Arimidex
  • Clinical and pharmacokinetic results suggest that tamoxifen should not be administered with Arimidex. Estrogen-containing therapies should not be used with Arimidex as they may diminish its pharmacologic action

Please click here for full Prescribing Information.