Debbie Baselle

When Debbie Baselle, of Brighton, Mich., learned about a Mayo Clinic clinical trial to control hot flashes, she was eager to sign up.

At age 41, her ovaries stopped working — a result of chemotherapy for her breast cancer. And the hot flashes began with a vengeance, up to 25 a day.

She stopped going to restaurants and to her children's school, where she was an active volunteer. "I didn't want to exercise. I didn't want to do anything," says Baselle. "I dripped. It was pretty embarrassing."

There was no relief at night. Drenched in sweat, she changed pajamas three times a night. "I wasn't getting much sleep," she says.

Hot flashes are a troublesome and common side effect for survivors of breast cancer and prostate cancer. The normal treatment, estrogen, is considered risky for cancer patients. Baselle endured the hot flashes for three years. In 2000, the staff at St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich., where she received her cancer care, called her about a clinical trial on hot flash treatment.

Led by Charles Loprinzi, M.D., a Mayo Clinic oncologist, the national study included more than 200 women with breast cancer and evaluated venlafaxine, a newer antidepressant, as a way to control hot flashes.

The idea for the study came from intriguing patient anecdotes. Dr. Loprinzi and some of his colleagues had noticed that patients taking antidepressant medications had fewer hot flashes. So, Dr. Loprinzi and a team at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center initially developed a pilot study. The results led to the larger clinical trial in which Debbie participated. The study found that low doses of venlafaxine reduced hot flashes in cancer survivors by about 60 percent.

After just three weeks on the medication, Baselle was down to just two hot flashes a day, with no side effects from the medication. She opted to continue the medication after the study ended.

"The medication has made a big difference in how I feel and my lifestyle," says Baselle. She's exercising regularly again, sleeping better and is more comfortable at social gatherings.

And, she says, "Now I actually get cold once in a while."