Drug reduces hot flashes for women with breast cancer

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A trial shows that gabapentin can help reduce hot flashes in women who have breast cancer.
Women who are having chemotherapy for breast cancer sometimes have hot flashes as a side effect. While hormone therapy, involving estrogen and progestagen, can reduce this symptom, it might also increase the risk of the recurrence of the cancer. So there is a need for another approach.

Researchers at the Rochester Cancer Center now report on 420 women with breast cancer having two or more hot flashes a day who took either gabapentin or a placebo for eight weeks. The study showed that hot flash frequency went down by 46 per cent among those taking 900 milligrams of gabapentin, by 31 per cent on those on a 300 milligram dose, and by 15 per cent among those on placebo. Clearly gabapentin is a useful non-hormonal alternative for women with breast cancer who are troubled by hot flashes.

Source
The Lancet 3rd September 2005

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