Episode 316: Pharmacology 101: Estrogen-Targeting Therapies

“Estrogen plays a key role in promoting the proliferation of normal and breast cancer epithelium. So now we have gone from focusing just on the estrogen to also look at estrogen receptors on breast cancer cells and targeting that—and now even to a point of looking at the downstream effects of when the estrogen binds to estrogen receptor of those signaling pathways,” Rowena “Moe” Schwartz, PharmD, BCOP, FHOPA, professor of pharmacy practice at James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about estrogen-targeting anticancer therapies. 

Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by June 14, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. 

Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to estrogen-targeting therapies. 

Episode Notes

To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.  

To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. 

To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. 

Highlights From This Episode 

“One of the kind of interesting things about [selective estrogen receptor degraders] is that these novel compounds also reduce the estrogen receptor alpha protein level. That becomes really important when we talk about elacestrant, because when there are mutations in the estrogen receptor protein, this is where this drug is actually indicated.” TS 7:48 

“Every time I talk about tamoxifen side effects, I just think about when I was early in my career and we used to talk at some support groups, and I would talk about tamoxifen having no side effects, because we really thought it had no side effects at that time. But we have learned since then that there are side effects because of its effect on other tissues. So one of the things that we have learned is that increased risk of endometrial cancer, and that is something really important for women to be aware of.” TS 10:10 

“It’s important to monitor bone mineral density, prior to the initiation of therapy and then usually yearly afterward. And then again, stress some of those lifestyle management strategies: avoiding smoking, to avoid chronic alcohol use, vitamin D and calcium, regular weight-bearing exercises, as well as looking at things such as bisphosphonate therapy or denosumab for prevention of treatment-induced bone loss.” TS 14:13 

“I think there is this concept that hormone receptor–positive breast cancer is one disease. It is not. … Not only are there disease-specific aspects that we need to look at, there are patient-specific aspects that we need to look at: whether a patient is premenopausal or postmenopausal or male. Those are things that we need to consider. So I think the big misconception is that all of these drugs work the same way because all breast cancer is the same.” TS 26:39 

Listen on:

Listen on Amazon Music, Listen on Apple Podcasts, Listen on Spotify, Listen on YouTube Music

ONS Podcasts

On-the-go discussions covering a wide array of clinical and leadership topics that you can earn NCPD for.

View All Podcasts

Related Topics