Recent perspectives of endocrine therapy for breast cancer.

Toshiaki Utsumi, Naomi Kobayashi, Hidetaka Hanada

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The choice of endocrine therapy for breast cancer depends on the menopausal status and stage of disease. Endocrine therapy remains the first choice and most important component in the treatment of hormone sensitive non-life threatening advanced breast cancer. In premenopausal women with metastatic disease, the combination of a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH) agonist plus tamoxifen is reasonable as first-line endocrine therapy. In postmenopausal patients with recurrent disease progressing after or during adjuvant tamoxifen, third-generation aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are the preferred first-line endocrine treatment. Many premenopausal and postmenopausal women with hormone responsive breast cancer benefit from sequential use of endocrine therapies at the time of disease progression. Recent clinical trials designs have been implemented, employing AIs as monotherapy in postmenopausal breast cancer patients, as first-line adjuvant therapy, and in sequence either 2-3 or 5 years, with initial tamoxifen. Emerging results from these trials indicate an advantage to patients for any of these strategies, and most international guidelines now suggest the use of an AI in the adjuvant setting in postmenopausal women. The use of endocrine treatment for metastatic and early breast cancer will be reviewed here.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)194-199
Number of pages6
JournalBreast cancer (Tokyo, Japan)
Volume14
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2007

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Oncology
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging
  • Pharmacology (medical)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Recent perspectives of endocrine therapy for breast cancer.'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this