does tamoxifen cause weight gain?
Charles Loprinzi, M.D.: If you received chemotherapy, then the weight gain could be blamed on the chemo. It is well known that, following the diagnosis of breast cancer, weight gain is relatively common. It is more common in women receiving chemotherapy than in women who do not receive chemotherapy. The question about tamoxifen causing weight gain, in my mind, has been well answered. There are thousands of women who have been randomized to receive either tamoxifen or a placebo in double-blind studies. Not one of those studies, to my knowledge, has demonstrated that the women receiving tamoxifen have more trouble with weight gain or weight loss than those women who receive placebo. The same thing could be said about nausea and vomiting. Some women complain that tamoxifen causes nausea and vomiting. There’s no suggestion that it does so more than a placebo.
