Breast cancer patients, going through endocrine treatment may show hot flashes, night sweats and joint symptoms which indicate toward gradual success of the treatment and reduction in estrogen level, that is a key risk factor of breast cancer, British researchers report.

They make comparison of women who reported these symptoms and those who didn’t, at their first visit during a trial evaluating tamoxifen or anastrozole for adjuvant therapy of postmenopausal breast cancer.

The 31.4 percent of women who reported new joint symptoms, hot flashes and night time sweating at the follow-up visit had a 14 percent rate of cancer recurrence, compared to 23 percent for those who didn’t report new joint symptoms.

The differences in cancer recurrence rates were noticed with both tamoxifen and anastrozole. Overall, patients with and without these symptoms who received anastrozole had lower recurrence rates than those who received tamoxifen.

“The appearance of new vasomotor symptoms or joint symptoms within the first three months is a useful biomarker, suggesting a greater response to endocrine treatment, compared with women without these symptoms,” wrote Professor Jack Cuzick, Cancer Research U.K. and Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, and colleagues.

“Awareness of the relation between early treatment-emergent symptoms and beneficial response to therapy might be useful when reassuring patients who present with them, and might help to improve long-term treatment adherence when symptoms cannot be alleviated,” Cuzick said.