Hot flashes, including sweating, palpitations and anxiety, are common side effects in women receiving chemotherapy or hormone therapy for breast cancer.Now, researchers say the epilepsy drug gabapentin (Neurontin) can reduce hot flashes by 46 percent in women fighting the disease."Women who have breast cancer and need to take drugs like tamoxifen and other drugs that are potentially likely to cause hot flashes can benefit from gabapentin,” said lead researcher Dr. Kishan J. Pandya, a professor of medicine at the University of Rochester Cancer Center.His team’s findings appear in the Sept. 3 issue of The Lancet.
