Side-effects cause some breast cancer patients to skip hormone...( rrence of breast cancer and ultimately...),Health

She said doctors should be more pro-active in getting patients to tell them how much of a problem hot flushes were, so they could watch out for the patients more likely not to adhere to treatment and offer them extra help.

"Women should not be embarrassed to report hot flushes and night sweats if they are a significant problem. If enough complain we may see some serious endeavour put into reducing side-effects.

"Personally, I would give a Nobel prize to the doctor who could eliminate hot flushes. It really is important," Professor Fallowfield concluded.

Key findings include:

• If daily tablets and a double injection a month had equal efficacy and side-effects, 63% preferred tablets, 24.5% preferred injections, 12.5% had no preference;
• Main reasons for the preference for tablets in this initial scenario, were convenience and dislike of needles, while reasons for preferring injections also included convenience, plus a desire to ensure adherence;
• Despite the initial scenario describing tablets and injections as equally effective, of those patients with a preference, 95.4% of those who preferred injections thought injections were more effective and 58.8% of those preferring tablets thought tablets were more effective;
• In an imagined scenario where a double injection a month produced fewer hot flushes, 27.4% opted for tablets, 60.6% for injections, 12% had no preference;
• In an imagined scenario where a double injection a month would better control the cancer, 19.2% chose tablets, 74.5% chose injections and 6.3% had no preference;
• Of those admitting to non-adherence, 48.7% said they sometimes forgot and 13.1% said they deliberately omitted taking their tablets at times;
• Asked about their feelings on injections, 37.5% said they were generally anxious about them, 17.
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