Clinical Comparison of the Effects of Gabapentin and Megestrol Aacetate on Hot Flashes in Patients with Breast Cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Hot flash affects approximately 75% of women with breast cancer. Those who experience hot flashes have higher rates of sleep disorders, temper and lower quality of life than women with no hot flashes.The  persent  study  was aimed to compare the effect of megestrol acetate with gabapentin on the severity of hot flashes in patients with breast cancer
Materials and Methods: In a randomized controlled clinical-trial study 120 patient with breast cancer who had moderate and  severe hot flashes were randomly assiged into two groups; 40 mg megestrol acetate twice daily and 300mg gabapentin oncedaily for a period of 8 weeks. Demographic data and the severity of hot flashes were recorded before treatment and 8 weeks after therapy. The obtained data was analysed using SPSS V15 withstatistical tests chi-square, Student T- Test and Paired T-Tes.
Results: After 8 weeks of treatment with megestrol acetat a reduction of 64.3% in hot flash frequency and 37.1% reduction in hot flash severity from base line were observed. In the gabapentin group the decrease was 44.8% and 24.6% compared before treatment respectively.(P=0.005  , P=0.04  ) After eight weeks of treatment the number of hot flashes was 3.9±4.0 and 5.8±3.7 in the megestrol acetat and gabapentin groups respectively; the difference was statistically significant(P=0.04).In the megestrol acetat group number of hot flashes was obviously lower than their level in the  gabapentin group. After eight weeks of treatment,the serverity of hot flashes was 50.4% and 62.9% in the megestrol and gabapentin  groups respectively; the difference was statistically significant (P=0.005  ).In the megestrol group severity of hot flash was obviously lower than their levels in the gabapentin group.In the megestrol group frequency and severity of hot flashes were obviously  significantly lower than their levels in the gabapentin group.
Conclusion:Megestrol acetat is significantly more effective than the Gabapentin in treating hot flash and can be considered as an effective therapy to reduce the disorder.