Incidence of chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea in premenopausal patients with breast cancer following adjuvant anthracycline and taxane

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of amenorrhea among breast cancer patients aged 40 years and younger following adjuvant chemotherapy.

Methods: A follow-up questionnaire survey was conducted with premenopausal women with breast cancer who were treated with adjuvant anthracycline and taxane-based chemotherapy.

Results: In total, 66 women were retrospectively reviewed. Forty-nine patients were treated with a regimen containing anthracycline followed by taxane and 17 patients with anthracycline alone. Fifty-eight patients (87.9%) experienced amenorrhea during chemotherapy; 14 patients (21.2%) had persistent amenorrhea after chemotherapy. The incidence of amenorrhea during chemotherapy and persistent amenorrhea was higher in patients older than 36 than in younger patients (97.9 vs. 63.2%, 27.7 vs. 5.3%). Additional taxane resulted in a higher incidence of amenorrhea compared with anthracycline-containing regimen alone (93.9 vs. 70.6%). Multivariate analysis showed that age (≥36 years) was independently associated with the incidences of amenorrhea during chemotherapy (p = 0.007).

Conclusion: Age was the strongest predictor of the incidence of amenorrhea during chemotherapy. It is unclear whether additional taxane may contribute to amenorrhea. This information could be useful in deciding whether to use adjuvant chemotherapy.