What is Arodex?
Arodex is used to treat certain types of breast cancer in women who have already stopped menstruating (postmenopausal). It is also used for women who have already had other cancer treatments (e.g., tamoxifen).
Many breast cancer tumors grow in response to estrogen. Arodex interferes with the production of estrogen in the body. As a result, the amount of estrogen that the tumor is exposed to is reduced, limiting the growth of the tumor.
Arodex is available only with your doctor's prescription.
Once a medicine has been approved for marketing for a certain use, experience may show that it is also useful for other medical problems. Although these uses are not included in product labeling, Arodex is used in certain patients with the following medical conditions:
- Breast cancer, neoadjuvant treatment for hormone receptor-positive, operable or potentially operable, locally advanced disease in postmenopausal women (treatment for advanced breast cancer that may respond to surgery in women who have already stopped menstruating).
Arodex indications
Adjuvant Treatment
Arodex tablets are indicated for adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer.
First-Line Treatment
Arodex tablets are indicated for the first-line treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive or hormone receptor unknown locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.
Second-Line Treatment
Arodex tablets are indicated for the treatment of advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women with disease progression following tamoxifen therapy. Patients with ER-negative disease and patients who did not respond to previous tamoxifen therapy rarely responded to Arodex tablets.
How should I use Arodex?
Use Arodex as directed by your doctor. Check the label on the medicine for exact dosing instructions.
- An extra patient information leaflet is available with Arodex. Talk to your pharmacist if you have questions about this information.
- Take Arodex by mouth with or without food.
- Continue to take Arodex even if you feel well. Do not miss any doses.
- If you miss a dose of Arodex, take it as soon as possible. If it is almost time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and go back to your regular dosing schedule. Do not take 2 doses at once.
Ask your health care provider any questions you may have about how to use Arodex.
Uses of Arodex in details
Use: Labeled Indications
Breast cancer:
First-line treatment of locally-advanced or metastatic breast cancer (hormone receptor-positive or unknown) in postmenopausal women
Adjuvant treatment of early hormone receptor-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women
Treatment of advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women with disease progression following tamoxifen therapy
Off Label Uses
Endometrial or uterine cancers (recurrent or metastatic)
Hormonal agents such as progestational agents or tamoxifen may be used in the management of recurrent or metastatic endometrial cancer; in select patients, aromatase inhibitors, including Arodex, may be considered. A small phase II trial evaluated Arodex in a group of unselected patients with advanced recurrent or persistent endometrial cancer; the results showed minimal activity of Arodex.
Arodex description
Arodex is a drug indicated in the treatment of breast cancer in post-menopausal women. It is used both in adjuvant therapy (i.e. following surgery) and in metastatic breast cancer. It decreases the amount of estrogens that the body makes. Arodex belongs in the class of drugs known as aromatase inhibitors. It inhibits the enzyme aromatase, which is responsible for converting androgens (produced by women in the adrenal glands) to estrogens.
Arodex dosage
Arodex Dosage
Generic name: Arodex 1mg
Dosage form: tablet
The information at Drugs.com is not a substitute for medical advice. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist.
Recommended Dose
The dose of Arodex is one 1 mg tablet taken once a day. For patients with advanced breast cancer, Arodex should be continued until tumor progression. Arodex can be taken with or without food.
For adjuvant treatment of early breast cancer in postmenopausal women, the optimal duration of therapy is unknown. In the ATAC trial, Arodex was administered for five years.
No dosage adjustment is necessary for patients with renal impairment or for elderly patients.
Patients with Hepatic Impairment
No changes in dose are recommended for patients with mild-to-moderate hepatic impairment. Arodex has not been studied in patients with severe hepatic impairment.
More about Arodex (Arodex)
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Consumer resources
- Arodex
- Arodex (Advanced Reading)
Professional resources
- Arodex (AHFS Monograph)
- Arodex (FDA)
Related treatment guides
- Breast Cancer, Metastatic
- Breast Cancer
- McCune-Albright Syndrome
- Pubertal Gynecomastia
Arodex interactions
See also:
What other drugs will affect Arodex?
Arodex inhibits CYPs 1A2, 2C8/9 and 3A4 in vitro. Clinical studies with antipyrine and warfarin showed that Arodex at a 1 mg dose did not significantly inhibit the metabolism of antipyrine and R- and S-warfarin indicating the co-administration of Arodex with other medicinal products is unlikely to result in clinically significant medicinal product interactions mediated by CYP enzymes.
The enzymes mediating metabolism of Arodex have not been identified. Cimetidine, a weak, unspecific inhibitor of CYP enzymes, did not affect the plasma concentrations of Arodex. The effect of potent CYP inhibitors is unknown.
A review of the clinical trial safety database did not reveal evidence of clinically significant interaction in patients treated with Arodex who also received other commonly prescribed medicinal products. There were no clinically significant interactions with bisphosphonates.
Co-administration of tamoxifen or estrogen-containing therapies with Arodex should be avoided as this may diminish its pharmacological action.
Arodex side effects
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What are the possible side effects of Arodex?
Unless specified, the following frequency categories were calculated from the number of adverse events reported in a large phase III study conducted in 9,366 postmenopausal women with operable breast cancer treated for 5 years (ATAC Study).
The table below presents the frequency of pre-specified adverse events in the ATAC study, irrespective of causality, reported in patients receiving trial therapy and up to 14 days after cessation of trial therapy.
The ATAC trial data showed that patients receiving Arodex had an increase in joint disorders (including arthritis, arthrosis, and arthralgia) compared with patients receiving tamoxifen. Patients receiving Arodex had an increase in the incidence of fractures (including fractures of spine, hip and wrist) compared with patients receiving tamoxifen. These differences were statistically significant. Fracture rates of 22 per 1,000 patient-years and 15 per 1000 patient-years were observed for the Arodex and tamoxifen groups, respectively, after a median follow up of 68 months. The observed fracture rate for Arodex is similar to the range reported in age-matched postmenopausal populations. It has not been determined whether the rates of fracture and osteoporosis seen in ATAC in patients on Arodex treatment reflect a protective effect of tamoxifen, a specific effect of Arodex, or both.
The incidence of osteoporosis was 10.5% in patients treated with Arodex and 7.3% in patients treated with tamoxifen.
Patients receiving Arodex had a decrease in hot flushes, vaginal bleeding, vaginal discharge, endometrial cancer, venous thromboembolic events (including deep venous thrombosis) and ischaemic cerebrovascular events compared with patients receiving tamoxifen. These differences were statistically significant.
Results from the ATAC trial bone substudy, at 12 and 24 months demonstrated that patients receiving Arodex had a mean decrease in both lumbar spine and total hip bone mineral density (BMD) compared to baseline. Patients receiving tamoxifen had a mean increase in both lumbar spine and total hip BMD compared to baseline.
Slight increases in total cholesterol have also been observed in clinical trials with Arodex, although the clinical significance has not been determined.
Arodex contraindications
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What is the most important information I should know about Arodex?
Do not use Arodex if you are pregnant. It could harm the unborn baby.
You may need to take a pregnancy test before using Arodex, to make sure you are not pregnant.
You should not use this medication if you are allergic to Arodex, if you are breast-feeding a baby, or if you have not yet completed menopause. Arodex is not for use in men or children.
Before using Arodex, tell your doctor if you have heart disease, circulation problems, a history of stroke or blood clot, severe liver disease, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, or low bone mineral density.
Arodex may not work as well if you take it together with tamoxifen or an estrogen medication (such as hormone replacement therapy, estrogen creams, or birth control pills, injections, implants, skin patches, and vaginal rings). Before you start taking Arodex, tell your doctor if you also take tamoxifen or estrogen.
You may need to keep taking Arodex for up to 5 years. Follow your doctor's instructions.
Active ingredient matches for Arodex:
Anastrozole in Bangladesh.
List of Arodex substitutes (brand and generic names) | Sort by popularity |
| Unit description / dosage (Manufacturer) | Price, USD |
| Armotraz (Bulgaria, Croatia (Hrvatska), India) | |
| Armotraz 1mg Tablet (Cipla) | $ 0.66 |
| Aromenal (Argentina) | |
| AROMITA | |
| AROMITA 1 MG TABLET 1 strip / 10 tablets each (Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd) | $ 3.01 |
| Aromita 1mg Tablet (Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd) | $ 0.33 |
| Asiolex (Argentina) | |
| Asnea (Czech Republic, Slovakia) | |
| Asoinacor (Mexico) | |
| Astralis (Croatia (Hrvatska)) | |
| Astrazol (Greece) | |
| Astrol (Slovenia) | |
| Astrozol (Iceland, Philippines) | |
| Astzol (Australia) | |
| Atrocela (Hungary) | |
| Atrocela 1 mg (Hungary) | |
| Atrozol (Poland) | |
| Avomin (Georgia) | |
| Axastrol (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) | |
| Azastrole (Australia) | |
| Azoleres | |
| Azoleres 1mg TAB / 10 | $ 0.60 |
| Azonet (Croatia (Hrvatska)) | |
| Barstra (Netherlands) | |
| Betasolde (Poland) | |
| Bio-Anastrozole (Canada) | |
| Bio-anastrozole tablet 1 mg (Biomed Pharma (Canada)) | |
| Biomedis Anastrozole (Philippines) | |
| Biomedis Anastrozole 1 mg x 28's | $ 102.67 |
| Biostrol (Netherlands) | |
| CCP-Anastrozole (Canada) | |
| Cefer (Argentina) | |
| Curmyl (Spain) | |
| Deltasolde (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia) | |
| Dispolan (Bulgaria) | |
| Distalene (Argentina) | |
| DP Anastrozole (New Zealand) | |
| Egistrazol (Russian Federation) | |
| Egistrozol (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Georgia) | |
| ELINAL | |
| ELINAL 1 MG TABLET 1 strip / 10 tablets each (Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd) | $ 5.35 |
| Elinal 1mg Tablet (Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd) | $ 0.54 |
| Eloza (Romania) | |
| Enastros (Greece) | |
| Enzamidex (Romania) | |
| Episolde (Estonia) | |
| Epsisolde (Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia) | |
| Eristrol (Italy) | |
See 555 substitutes for Arodex | |
References
- DailyMed. "ANASTROZOLE: DailyMed provides trustworthy information about marketed drugs in the United States. DailyMed is the official provider of FDA label information (package inserts).". https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailyme... (accessed September 17, 2018).
- PubChem. "anastrozole". https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/com... (accessed September 17, 2018).
- DrugBank. "anastrozole". http://www.drugbank.ca/drugs/DB01217 (accessed September 17, 2018).
Reviews
The results of a survey conducted on ndrugs.com for Arodex are given in detail below. The results of the survey conducted are based on the impressions and views of the website users and consumers taking Arodex. We implore you to kindly base your medical condition or therapeutic choices on the result or test conducted by a physician or licensed medical practitioners.User reports
Consumer reported useful
No survey data has been collected yetConsumer reported price estimates
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Information checked by Dr. Sachin Kumar, MD Pharmacology
