This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

I guess I get to be a guinea pig of sorts, only inadvertantly, as I started Tomaxifen three days ago as a preventative for reoccurrence of breast cancer. It was highly recommended by the oncologist that I do this as statistically the tomaxifen would provide a significant reduction in all breast cancer events. So of course I decided that I should add this to my regimin of drugs that I take. But he also had researched the drug and found some benefit to it and MS, which some of you may already be aware. It's the estriol hypothesis. Some of the research that I found was not real current which tells me that the theory is still just that-a theory. But the conclusion that I came to is that it is not harmful, perhaps could be helpful and that the jury is still out. I will keep you posted if I notice anything significant pertaining to MS while I am on this. It is recommended that a patient stay on this drug for 5 years. I'll have to see about that. I don't know yet if any of the side effects will in fact bother me. If anyone has any information pertaining to either this drug or to estriol/estradiol I would greatly appreciate the information.

Lori

Sorry, I spelled the drug incorrectly. It is tamoxifin. I guess I need spellcheck today!

Hi Lori

I'm impressed that your oncologist checked out a possible benefit of Tamoxifen for MS.

You're absolutely right, the "estriol" hypothesis is just that, a hypothesis that it might be relevant to MS. There was a small Phase I Clinical Trial of estriol in women with RRMS and SPMS. The results were favorable for women with RRMS and a Phase II trial is planned.

Here's a link to the original study: Treatment of MS with the Pregnancy Hormone Estriol

It was later reported (Actrims 2003 Conference) that estriol also appeared to slow the development of those infamous "black holes" in women with RRMS.

This link highlights some detailed info about estriol and immune modulation.

Personally I think the potential of estriol/estradiol to help manage MS is via neuroprotection. That's also a hypothesis as the info is pre-clinical, but IMHO the pre-clinical evidence is good, i.e., some of the neurprotective properties of estrogens seem to mirror potentially relevant facets of the MS disease process. For example, there's been some recent discussion here about mitochondrial dysfunction and MS.

This abstract, Novel Mechanisms of Estrogen Induced Neuroprotection notes:
Mitochondria Play a Central Role in Estrogen Induced Neuroprotection
Unfortunately I haven't read the article and don't know if one of the "novel analogs" they considered was Tamoxifen.

I have read only a tiny bit about selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMS), including Tamoxifen, that suggests it does indeed have neuroprotective properties, but these properties are not necessarily identical to estradiol. For example, this research found:
At any rate, please do keep us posted on how you do with it. If possible in your circumstances, you might also want to consider having your progesterone level checked. There's very little research, but there's some, which suggests it's the ratio of estrogen to progesterone (rather than absolute levels) that might contribute to MS symptoms and/or exacerbations.

At any rate it seems like the Tamoxifen might well prevent a recurrence of the breast cancer and help manage the MS too since it also seems to have some neuroprotective properties. I certainly wish you all the best in tackling both.

Sharon

Thanks for all the info Sharon. I will be sure to research all that you cited. I am going into this with attitude that it may be beneficial for both issues, certainly for one. As long as I have to take one more drug I wanted it to be beneficial for both if possible! And if it is, all the better. I'll let you know how it goes.

Lori