Femara - Letrozole, for Breast Cancer
Femara Oral Uses
Femara Letrozole is used in conjunction with other prescription drugs to treat a number of kinds of breast cancer. Among them are hormone receptor positive breast cancer in women who have already experienced menopause. Letrozole lowers the levelse of estrogen in the body. These lower levels can slow or reverse the growing breast cancers by lowering estrogen levels in the body. Estrogen can encourage the growth of these breast cancers.
Women of child-bearing age cannot be prescribed this prescription drug.
What should my primary care specialist ask me before prescribing Letrozole to me? What should I tell him?
He will know what to ask you, because he or she is a trained doctor.
Always answer your doctor's questions full, truthfully, and accurately. Some patients deliberately and actively deceive their doctors by not mentioning symptoms they see developing within themselves, and a few patients even lie by answering the doctor's direct questions in a way that the patient knows to be false. These patients harm only themselves by doing so - it is not the doctor who will have a heart attack that might have been prevented.
For this particular prescritption drug, your doctor will want to know about these specific conditions:
•Do you have liver disease or osteoporosis?
•Do you get an unusual or allergic reaction to letrozole, other medicines,
foods, dyes, or preservatives?
•Are you pregnant or trying to get pregnant?
•Are you breast-feeding?
What is the most important information I should be prepared to tell my doctor about myself befoe he prescribes letrozole for me?
Tell your doctor if you have or have ever had liver disease. Depending exactly on what your liver's problem was,your doctor might have to change your dosage, or he might find it neessary to prescribe certain tests for your liver during thie course of your treatment. It might be impossible for you to take Letrozole at all.
This prescription drug is counterindicated for pregnant women. It can cause damage and even death to the unborn foetus. If this presciption drug is indicated for you, it might be adviseable for you to use an effective form of birth control. Tell your doctor immediately if you become pregnant while taking this drug.
•Take this prescription drug exactly as your doctor indicated to you. Use it neither for a longer period nor in larger quantities than your doctor has prescribed it for.
•Be sure to tell your doctor about any and all other drugs you might be taking. Omit nothing from this list. You might even take the trouble of writing it all down before your coming meeting with your doctor. Do not forget to mention vitamins, herbal products, minerals, presription drugs other doctors have prescribed to you, aspirin, and all other chemical products you put into your body. If you start any new medication of and kind, precribed or not, be sure to tell your doctor about it.
• If you suddenly experience signs of an allergic reaction, such as difficulty breathing, swelling of your throat, tongue, lips, or face, of if you think you have inadvertently taken a larger than prescribed quntity of this prescription drug, stop taking at once, and seek emergency medical treatment at your nearest hospital of other medical center that offers medical treatment for emergency situations.
• Less serious side effects are of course much more common than those mentioned above. You will hopefully, and quite likely, have no side effects at all. But you must always inform your doctor about any you do have..
Side Effects of This Medicine
In addition to the needed aims and positive effects that this medicine gives to your body, and for which the doctor is planning, and which will hopefully increase your health and help you to recover from the disease this prescription drug is designed to cure, this medicine might also produce side effects. These side effects will likely require medical attention if they occur.
The most serious side effect which this prescription drug might cause to somebody who has an existing tendency in that direction is a blood clot. The most common symptom of a blood clot is shortness of breath. The less common symptom is chest pain. Anybody taking this prscription medicine who experiences these symptoms must immediately inform his doctor, who will advice his patient to stop taking this medicine and seek emergency help.
Other symptoms can include:
Continuing or severe nervousness; cough ; dizziness or lightheadedness;
fainting; fast heartbeat; heart attack; increased sweating; nausea;
pain in chest, groin, or legs, especially the calves; severe, sudden
headache; slurred speech; severe and sudden, unexplained shortness
of breath; sudden loss of coordination ; sudden, severe weakness or
numbness in arm or leg ; vision changes, bone fracture; breast pain; chills, fever, or flu-like symptoms; mental
depression; swelling of feet or lower legs, vaginal bleeding, back pain; bone pain; hot flashes (sudden sweating and feeling of
warmth); joint pain; muscle pain, anxiety; confusion; constipation; diarrhea; dry mouth; headache; increased
thirst and urination; loss of appetite or weight loss; metallic taste;
skin rash or itching; sleepiness; spinning or whirling sensation causing
loss of balance; stomach pain or upset; trouble sleeping; unusual
tiredness; vomiting; weakness; weight gain, blurred vision.
Letrozole sometimes causes a loss of hair..
