Correspondence

Megestrol Acetate for the Prevention of Hot Flashes

N Engl J Med 1995; 332:64January 5, 1995

Article

To the Editor:

Loprinzi and his colleagues (Aug. 11 issue)1 measured the effect of megestrol on hot flashes by weighting the number of hot flashes according to their severity. A score of 8 could mean that one patient had two very severe episodes a day or that eight patients each had one mild episode daily. The authors present their results as the total score for all the patients, expressed as a percentage of the sum of the base-line values. This could represent a uniform effect or a mixture of complete relief and no effect. It would be interesting to know how many of the severely affected patients and how many of those mildly affected received worthwhile help.

T.H. Hughes-Davies, F.R.C.P.
Breamore Marsh, Fordingbridge, Hampshire SP6 2EJ, United Kingdom

1 References

1
Loprinzi CL, Michalak JC, Quella SK, et al. Megestrol acetate for the prevention of hot flashes. N Engl J Med 1994;331:347-352
Full Text | Web of Science | Medline

Author/Editor Response

The authors reply:

To the Editor: One way to answer the question posed by Dr. Hughes-Davies is to examine the reduction in hot flashes among the patients receiving megestrol acetate according to the mean number of hot flashes per day at base line. Table 1Table 1Percentages of Patients Receiving Megestrol Who Had Various Degrees of Reduction in Hot Flashes after Four Weeks (as Compared with Base-Line Values), According to the Mean Number of Hot Flashes per Day at Base Line. summarizes this information for all the patients (i.e., men and women combined). There were no significant differences in the degree of reduction in hot flashes among the three patient groups defined according to the base-line frequency of hot flashes. The results were similar when the data for the men and women were analyzed separately.