Does tamoxifen help?
WebMD Feature Oct. 30, 2000 — The day that forever changed Bonnie McDonald’s life started out like any other. It was a typically hectic Monday morning last spring when the 37-year-old decided to grab a quick shower. She’d gone for a run after dropping her son off at school and was about to rush off to her part-time catering job when she felt a pea-sized lump in her left breast. Tests later that week showed that she had found a cancerous tumor. “It was so frightening,” she says. “I’d always been athletic and healthy. That was my first glimpse of mortality.” McDonald underwent a lumpectomy and eight weeks of radiation. Then her oncologist suggested she begin taking tamoxifen, an anticancer drug that has been playing a substantial role in the fight against the return of breast cancer. Tamoxifen works by blocking the estrogen that breast cancer cells need to grow. Her doctor explained that, as a side effect of the treatment, she might go through a temporary menopause and could experience
